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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24957481">Or Die Trying</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToImagineIsEverything/pseuds/ToImagineIsEverything'>ToImagineIsEverything</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Idioms and Other Expressions of Love [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/F, Girl Penis, Knotting, Light Bondage, Light Dom/sub, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Spanking</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:55:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>24,083</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24957481</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToImagineIsEverything/pseuds/ToImagineIsEverything</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Andy's finally invited Narcissa over to meet Teddy, and despite Hermione's assurances that everything is going to be fine, Andy keeps pacing the floor. Her continued efforts to make the other woman feel better are only stymied by a growing sense of fogginess across her mind which Hermione can't find a reason for. Perhaps family lunch isn't their biggest problem for the day.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Andromeda Black Tonks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Idioms and Other Expressions of Love [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805986</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>276</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Or Die Trying</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My friend liked the first one if grudgingly, so NOW HERE I AM TO MAKE IT WORSE. (I did make it worse with this *cackling*) Also I love Andy/Hermione so. They need more fics about them. It's not all me being motivated by being the corrupting friend.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Hermione watched as Andy paced the kitchen for the thousandth time that morning. All of course while telling Hermione that no, she wasn’t nervous, not at all. Everything was going to be fine. Really, the woman was rather ridiculous. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Andy, calm down, really. Teddy is two and he loves everyone. Narcissa loves kids. I’ve seen how she looks at babies when we’re out at tea together. I know you want the meeting to go well, but really, you’re overreacting,” Hermione finally snapped and said, though her tone was gentle. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But--” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione cut her off before she could even voice the words. “She’s said she wants to change. She said the first war made her see and the second made her want to actually act. You </span>
  <em>
    <span>believed </span>
  </em>
  <span>her or this wouldn’t even be happening, babe. You’ve strung this out for almost six months making sure everything was actually fine. She hasn’t reacted in anything other than a positive way. Now you have to just trust the change and encourage it. Which you’re doing by letting her meet Teddy. And he’ll have her wrapped around his little finger in a second. Merlin knows it took him less time with me, but we all know I’m a softie with kids.” She bit the inside of her lip, looking at Andy, imagining a little girl with a little lighter hair than Hermione, a little looser curls, dark brown, almost black eyes and her heart shaped face. A little amalgam of them both.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shook herself. It had only been a little under six months. It was far too early for such thoughts and she couldn’t even blame her heat, the next one wasn’t for months yet. Yet the last six months had been rather wonderful after her first heat. Andy had proved more than a match for her, whip smart and wit to match, she was everything that Hermione had thought to want in a mate and she had just accidentally stumbled into this rather on accident. Where would she be if she hadn’t gone to Andy for help? It didn’t bear thought. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know,” she sighed. “I really do. It’s just…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teddy was all she had left of her family. Hermione understood, perhaps too well for someone her age. But what did age really matter when you had gone through a war? She had lost friends that had been more like family. It wasn’t quite the same as losing a husband and daughter, but loss was loss at the end of the day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione pushed herself up from the table she’d been sitting at to draw the older witch into her arms. She kissed Andy’s cheek, drawing her down to lean on her shoulder. Sometimes she wished she was taller so she could wrap Andy up in her arms, tuck her against her body so thoroughly, the way Andy did to her when she needed it, but being the shorter one she’d have to take what she could give. Andy didn’t seem to mind. She melted into Hermione in an instant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” Andy whispered into her hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Always.” She squeezed Andy tight again before the wards pinged. Narcissa was finally here then. She stepped back and smiled up at her witch. “And now it’s showtime. I’ll go grab the main attraction.” She smiled and set off for Teddy’s room where he was playing quietly with blocks under the supervision of at least five monitoring spells while they’d been preparing lunch. She scooped the boy up and lifted him up above her head, making airplane noises as he giggled. He was getting a bit heavy to do this, but honestly, she knew how to cast a featherlight charm and she wasn’t about to give this up. It always made him so happy. “You wanna go meet your Auntie Narcissa now, bud?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded, smiling. They’d told him about the other woman in fits and starts. He always seemed excited about the prospect of another auntie. Morgana knew that all the Aunties and Uncles he already had spoiled him within an inch of his life. The kid probably sensed even more ice cream in the future. She didn’t blame him. With the way Draco had been in school, that kid had never been told no, and Teddy was even cuter, in her opinion, anyway, Narcissa probably would have the kid in close second, parental bias and all that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then let’s go!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yay!” He clapped his pudgy hands as Hermione clopped down the stairs with him on her hip. She smiled at him, heart melting. She’d liked kids before, she really had, but presenting as an omega had seemed to turn that like up to about an eleven out of ten. Honestly, out of everything, it was probably the easiest change to accept. Especially since Andy did come with a toddler, liking kids even more wasn’t exactly a bad thing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, she told her wandering brain, no kids of her own before she was established and firmly on her way to being minister. She stopped on the last step. Usually she wasn’t this bad off, thinking about kids before her time. Normally it was only a thought or two after seeing a cute kid and then easily dismissed. She blinked. Her heat wasn’t for another six months...but Andy’s rut was soon. And thoughts of children increased in both alpha and omega around heat and rut times if they were together. But Andy would’ve told her if she was getting close to her rut. The woman should’ve been well aware of it. All the alphas she knew said the signs were hard to miss. And if she had known she definitely wouldn’t have invited Narcissa over today. She shrugged to herself at that thought. Maybe she was just reading a bit too much into things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She found Narcissa and Andy sitting at the kitchen table, chatting quietly, already fixing themselves plates of food. Teddy lunged, trying to get to his grandma, and only Hermione’s quick reflexes saved him from plummeting face first onto the floor. She steadied him before sighing out in relief. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whoa there, buddy, you’ll see Grandma in a second. Can’t just go jumping out of people’s arms. You’ll fall and squish your nose flat.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course Teddy, being Teddy, morphed his face so his nose </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> flat, smiling at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She laughed. “I suppose, but it would be permanent. No morphing back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He frowned and then nodded, accepting her reasoning, at least for the time being. She was sure that he would do it again tomorrow. But he was getting older. Maybe the gap would last until the day after that. She didn’t figure it would be any longer than that. She ruffled his hair and turned back to face Andy and Narcissa who were both turned around looking at them now. Narcissa only had eyes for Teddy, and Hermione had definitely been right. The woman would be putty in Teddy’s hands, she was already melting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione pointed to Narcissa for Teddy’s benefit. “That’s Auntie Narcissa.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi Auntie Cissa!” He waved happily. He’d never been a shy kid. Hermione wondered if he’d ever go through that stage, but she thought rather not. If the kid didn’t end up in Gryffindor, she’d eat her hat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello Teddy, it’s nice to finally meet you. Your grandma has told me a lot about you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Teddy, mindful of almost falling out of Hermione’s arms the minute before, reached out carefully, not lunging this time, towards Narcissa. Hermione obliged his request and handed him off to his aunt, sitting down beside Andy now that her hands were free of rambunctious two year old.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy handed Hermione a plate, already filled with her favorites from what Andy had made, bangers and mash, although a more upscale version in deference to Narcissa, with green beans and broccoli, but she’d left off the cooked carrots. She smiled at the other woman for remembering her rather strong abhorrence of the cooked root vegetable. Raw was fine, tasty even, but cooked? Disgusting. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A delicate snort came from Narcissa. “You two are rather disgustingly in love.” She rolled her eyes. “And I thought it was bad before out in public, no the domesticity makes it worse.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh please,” Andy returned, “don’t pretend like you and Lucius weren’t even more ‘disgustingly in love’ as you put it. He called you Pet. Out loud. In front of people. And you liked it. And it was all, my love, my darling, my only.” Andy gagged dramatically. “The absolute git.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, he wasn’t quite so git-ish then.” But Narcissa’s cheeks were bright red and she turned back to Teddy. “Don’t listen to your grandma, I was never so foolishly in love as that. I am a lady from the noble House of Black. I’m above such things. So are you, you’re the youngest and cutest member of our house after all.” She poked his nose and smiled. Teddy giggled in response and his hair shifted from brown curls much like Andy’s to Narcissa’s particular shade of pale silver blonde. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, Teddy already loved the woman then. He tended to copy features from people he loved. Big softie, the kid. Maybe he would be in Hufflepuff instead. But definitely either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. Hermione smiled and wondered if he would be a hat stall. She certainly would’ve been if the Hat hadn’t whispered to her about Slytherin and her future there and then immediately sorted her into Gryffindor. She wondered what that had all been about at the time...but now she supposed she rather got it. The Hermione that would have gone through Slytherin house would’ve been a much different girl, rather scary quite frankly, cleverer than the devil no doubt and perhaps with flexible morals to match.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh please, he can react however he wants when he’s in love. No need to foist those stifling rules on him.” Andy speared a carrot and brought it up to her mouth with a bit more force than necessary. Hermione tried not to squirm in her seat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s nothing wrong with having a bit of personal pride.” Narcissa took her own, rather daintier bite of peas, scooping them up on her fork with a grace Hermione had no idea was possible. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s nothing wrong with a bit of personal pride,” Andy mocked right back. “Right, so, hearing tell of you being rather public with Lady Zabini now that your divorce is finalized is hearsay, I’m guessing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa blushed again, deeper than before. She busied herself with switching Teddy over to his high chair where there was already a plate for him with everything cut up into tiny toddler sized pieces. He set to work eating immediately. There wasn’t a food the kid didn’t like. Hermione wondered if he needed the extra calories to keep up his morphing ability. She’d have to find a book about it later to find out for sure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s a lovely woman,” Narcissa finally said, running out of things to stall with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy took a deep breath and smirked. “And rather secretly an alpha, I suspect.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa’s eyes were quick to glare at her sister. “No, she’s an omega. She did have Blaise after all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy shook her head. “I know what I smell, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Cissy</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blonde witch’s face scrunched at the much hated nickname. “You could be smelling a hundred other people. I was out in Diagon before I came here for lunch.” She gestured at a cake on the counter that Hermione hadn’t seen before. “I was at Hildegard’s Bakery and it was very crowded.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione took a breath, and she did smell a few other scents, fresher but just barely there, agreeing with Narcissa’s story of meeting people in passing, but the smell of female alpha was fainter, yet more pervasive. Hermione would’ve bet a week’s salary that Narcissa had spent the night at Lady Zabini’s house in the last week and that she certainly was an alpha.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mhm, sure, and the fact that Lady Zabini disappeared for a year to France and came back with her dear Blaise definitely isn’t suspicious at all.” She reached for her sister’s hand. “You’re allowed to be happy, Narcissa. I want you to be. I just would rather not be lied to. I could give a damn if Lady Zabini is pretending to be an omega to be underestimated, so long as she gives you what you need.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione had to hide a snort at that rather unintended double entendre. She was sure Lady Zabini was giving Narcissa everything she needed alright. The woman was an absolute tiger dressed up like a sheep. Fucking Narcissa was probably the only time she really got to </span>
  <em>
    <span>be</span>
  </em>
  <span> an alpha. She shivered, leaning harder into Andy, catching a whimper in her throat at the thought of her own alpha taking her the same way. Merlin, where was her filter today?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa’s eyes found Hermione’s. “I can say the same thing for you, ‘dromeda. I do want you to be happy. I’m sad I missed the first time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy squeezed her sister’s hand once more before dropping it again and going back to eating. “Yes, well, we’re working on it, aren’t we?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa nodded. “I suppose we are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Peas!” Teddy exclaimed right before flinging a spoonful of them onto the ceiling. They bounced off and then rained down on the three witches. Hermione, much used to this, vanished the spilled peas quickly enough. It was Teddy’s new trick, much to the frustration of Andy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Teddy,” Andy said sternly, pinning her grandson with a glare. “What have I said about throwing food?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teddy’s joyful look fled in an instant. He knew that look and it definitely spelled no cookies for him after dinner. “Not to?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, exactly, and if I’ve said no, and if we have company over, do you think that answer changes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He dropped his little head and Hermione was having the hardest time not letting out an ‘aww.’ She glanced over at Narcissa who seemed to be having the same problem. Their eyes met and they both had to stifle a laugh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Teddy said, drawing out the word rather forlornly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t think so either. Now, what aren’t you going to do for the rest of the meal?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thwow things.” He drug his small spoon through his mashed potatoes slowly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione melted a bit more. R’s weren’t a sound he’d gotten the hang of yet. She was very glad that Andy was the disciplinarian because she was sure one missed r and she would give the kid a cookie anyway just to see him smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good boy, no cookies after dinner tonight, but you can still show Auntie Cissa all your toys later.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He perked up at that and turned to Narcissa with bright eyes. “Weally? Auntie Cissa, please!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course I would love to see them, darling boy.” And there was glint in her eyes that spoke of Teddy soon being the recipient of more toys than he could ever imagine. Hermione turned to look at Andy, who was pinching the bridge of her nose carefully, no doubt imagining the mess more toys would make, and also trying to balance Narcissa’s rather giving spirit with not spoiling the boy entirely. She reached out with her free hand and squeezed Andy’s thigh gently. The older woman dropped the hand pinching her nose and smiled at Hermione, with a bit more teeth than normal. Hermione felt her insides clench at the look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s rather fond of cars right now. Goodness knows I think Harry has bought him a hundred matchbox cars in the past six months alone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Matchbox cars?” Narcissa tilted her head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Muggle toy cars, they’re like seven, eight centimeters long and fairly accurate models of real cars. Most of the time. I had one that was shaped like a goldfish when I was little. It was somehow my favorite.” She shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa arched an eyebrow. “You played with toy cars? That seems like more of a little boy’s toy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione’s look was rather deadpan. “They’re cars, Narcissa, I assure you both women and men drive cars as adults. Why should toy versions be gendered?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blonde witch considered that for a moment before nodding hesitantly. Hermione damn well knew she had a point and it was valid. Granted the entire toy industry was rather against her opinion, but maybe in the new millennium it would get better. She ardently hoped anyway. She wondered if letter campaigns would do anything...magically generating a load of letters was easy enough. Hmm, it bore thought. She didn’t want her own children growing up in a world where toys were strictly regimented. If they wanted dolls they would have them. If they wanted monster trucks they could have those too. She drew the line at slime or silly putty or anything of the sort. That stuff got everywhere and never came out. Though that little girl with Andy’s hair popped up in her mind’s eye again and well, she couldn’t imagine she could say no to her. Maybe there could be slime. In very controlled situations. She leaned further into Andy and sighed, inhaling her scent deeply before going back to her lunch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And that doll you had as a child, Cissa, was not fit for anyone.” Andy shivered. “Always felt like that thing was watching me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was a family heirloom! I was honored to receive it!” Narcissa stabbed her fork at her sister in a rather menacing way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh Merlin, do you still </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> that thing somewhere?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A look flashed across Narcissa’s face, gone as quickly as it had come. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You do! Oh Salazar’s balls knowing you it’s probably in some display case with preservation spells on it. Oh Godric, I should’ve let Bella burn the thing when she was being a little shit…” She looked at Teddy who appeared to be focused on his meal, rather woofing it down so he got to show off his toys closer in time to present. Andy continued, “I mean a little turd after she came back from her first year.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I would have gladly murdered you both if you had,” Narcissa sniffed. “Mother wouldn’t have stopped me, I’m sure. It was a Rosier heirloom after all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> ever understand why you love that thing so much.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione nudged Andy’s side. “What and you didn’t have some childhood toy that you were attached to for far longer than you should’ve been?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No of course not!” But there was just a hint of a blush on Andy’s cheeks. Hermione turned to look at Narcissa, arching a brow, waiting for the woman to spill the beans in retaliation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She had a Morgana doll that by the time she was done with it, looked nothing like a woman, let alone Morgana. If </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span> was an abomination, it was that thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey! At least it didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>start</span>
  </em>
  <span> out creepy. What else do you expect a doll to look like after a toddler drags it around for years?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Draco’s stuffed dragon is still rather pristine and he’s had that since the moment he was born.” Narcissa’s smile was smug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s because you either had more than one made, or put so many preservation spells on it that there wasn’t exactly an option.” Her eyes narrowed. “Let me guess. That’s in another shadow box right beside your doll now that Draco is grown, isn’t it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione had to stifle a snort. If she had known that Draco had grown up with a literal stuffed dragon, her comebacks at Hogwarts would have certainly been better. Especially if she’d known that his mother had kept it and preserved it. Ah well, there was no time like the present, she was sure that she would see Draco at some point in the future and while he’d definitely improved in character, he was still rather a spoiled git from time to time. Now she had ammo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Didn’t you save--” Narcissa cut herself off quickly. She swallowed hard and looked back up at Andy with sad eyes. “I certainly hope you have some keepsakes of your own from Nymphadora. They grow up too quickly not to have some reminders of how small they once were stashed away.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy’s hand found Hermione’s on her thigh, gripping it hard. Hermione turned her hand over and laced their fingers together. The older witch had told her much about her bouts of grief for both her late husband and daughter. The passing of time was helping, Hermione rather thought her presence was helping too, but it was still a rather fresh wound. She doubted it would ever be anything but.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do,” Andy said quietly. “Mostly drawings, though, not stuffed animals. She liked to draw so much. For a good portion of her childhood I thought she was going to be an artist, Merlin knows I thought she was talented enough to do it, but then...well, she always was a Daddy’s girl.” She reached out with her other hand to brush Teddy’s bangs back from his face. He scowled at the tender touch, still very focused on eating, but he didn’t pull away. “Your mother was very brave, Teddy. So brave. Just like her father.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teddy’s eyes focused on his grandma. “Momma?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, dear heart, Momma, and Daddy too. They fought so you could have a good childhood. They loved you so much.” She tweaked his nose and he giggled. “Now back to those carrots, munchkin, you need to eat all your vegetables before you can go off with your Auntie.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, Gramma!” He pouted, but he dutifully scooped up another bite of carrots. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa watched him eat his vegetables with a rather awed expression. “Draco would’ve tried to scheme his way out of that.” She laughed quietly. “I don’t think your dear grandson is going to end up in our beloved Hogwarts house.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy snorted. “No, he’s clever, but he’s much too honest, and I’d rather he stay that way, thank you very much. Was raising a Slytherin child as much of a mild nightmare as I would expect?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa shrugged one shoulder elegantly. “I rather expect it would be more difficult for someone like Miss Granger who wasn’t in our noble house. Figuring out the manipulations a child might use is easy enough when you’re an adult who’s thought through the same schemes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey! I was almost put into Slytherin. You don’t know everything I did over the years. I’m terribly clever.” And rather brutal according to more than one source, though her moral fortitude wasn’t that of a chocolate eclair like most Slytherins. Perhaps that’s what made the difference.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do you know?” Narcissa arched one barely visible blonde eyebrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The hat asked me about it, told me what I could become in the house, actually it stopped in the middle of that and then immediately sorted me into Gryffindor. I was never sure why, really. I mean I’m happy it did, I doubt Harry and Ron and I would’ve been such close friends otherwise. Oh </span>
  <em>
    <span>Merlin</span>
  </em>
  <span>, I probably would’ve been friends with Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Baulstrode. Oh Godric, I dodged a bullet.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both sisters looked at each other for a long moment with expressions of equal relief and worry as if to say that the world had rather dodged a bullet with Hermione being sorted as she had been. Hermione rather doubted that. Just because she might’ve ended up in Slytherin didn’t mean that she was going to be the next Dark Lord...Lady, whatever. She would’ve been different, sure, but with the way her parents raised her, she wasn’t going to blow up the </span>
  <em>
    <span>world</span>
  </em>
  <span>...much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perhaps you might get by then, but not nearly as well as a true Slytherin, dear.” Narcissa waved her off casually.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teddy pushed his mostly clean plate forward. “Ok, Gramma, done!” Andy looked at the plate for a long second before nodding. “You can be done, but you have to wait until Auntie Cissa is done, and you can’t pester her into being done, are we clear?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He frowned but nodded. “Go play?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, you can go play in the meantime.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teddy grinned up at his Grandma and waited for her to lift him out of his booster seat to the floor. He shot off towards his bedroom like a rocket on two little feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa turned back from watching him go with a smile on her face. “He’s truly adorable, ‘dromeda. I believe I love him already.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy snorted and nodded. “He has that effect on most people.” She looked at her sister. “But I am glad that you like him, Cissa. He’s…and you’re…” she trailed off unable to speak any further.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa reached a hand, placing it on Andy’s arm gently. “I know. It’s you and Draco for me, as well. I...I desperately want this to work. And it has been, I know, but I still fear saying the wrong thing and things coming crashing down around us again. I’m not sure if I could stand it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I feel the same, like we’re dancing on eggshells even as we’re trying to trade barbs as we used to.” She pulled her hand from Hermione’s to set it on top of Narcissa’s. “But we’ll get it right, in due time. Goodness knows if we’ve gotten through five months without absolutely sticking our feet in something, it should be fine. You couldn’t seem to do that when we were younger, so I suspect it’s a good sign.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re remembering. I’ve always been a perfectly poised lady.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh huh and that time a pixie got into your room and started to chase you? You were a perfectly poised lady then, huh?” Andy’s smirk was a sight to behold. Though Hermione would much rather be seeing it while she was on her back, decidedly naked on her bed with Andy in the same state above her. About to push into her and fuck her so hard she forgot her name. Oh with Andy holding her arms above her head, yes that would be rather delicious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione managed to stop her train of thought again. Something had to be wrong. It wasn’t like she was sex deprived enough to only be thinking about Andy fucking her. They’d made love the night before. Andy had been so gentle it had broken her heart almost in two. She’d felt Andy holding herself back so much, but she hadn’t let Hermione goad her into anything other than gentle caresses and smooth thrusts that hit her exactly where she needed all in their own good time. So no, this wasn’t just normal hormones. It wasn’t her normal filter just being tired or anything of that sort. It had to have a cause. And of course she was very good at figuring things out, brightest witch of her age as she was and all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But then Andy’s hand was back in hers and both Narcissa and Andy were bickering good naturedly again, emotions discarded for another time. Hermione rather thought they would make it in the long run. She wasn’t so sure about siblings, being an only child, but watching the Weasley’s over the years did assure her that even in times of great strife, they would come back together. Percy had been accepted back after all with only a rather recommended family roast of his actions, then all was forgiven with a sense of caution, but forgiven nonetheless.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That thought, and Andy’s hand in hers was enough to distract her from her investigation. She felt a bit fuzzy, but nothing worrying. She was probably just tired from the night before. So she listened to the sisters verbally strike and parry, having far too much fun, she thought, despite their actual rather barbed words. She finished her food quietly, hanging onto Andy’s hand, and slowly trying to melt into the other woman in fits and starts, shaking herself and withdrawing only when she realized being rather plastered to Andy probably wasn’t the best idea with company in the house, no matter how much she wanted to do so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa pushed her plate forward finally. “Well, you aren’t a house elf, but the meal was serviceable, thank you for lunch. May I help you clean up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Narcissa Black dirtying her hands, perish the thought.” But Andy tilted her chin towards the plates, “you scourgify and Hermione can put them away while I pack up the leftovers, yes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa nodded and started cleaning plates with a swift flick of her wand. Hermione drew her own wand and started sending the cleaned dishes to their places easily. Andy stood to get containers, rounding up the serving dishes with a wave of her own wand. Hermione laughed once, almost soundlessly to herself. If she had told herself in sixth year that she would be sitting in a kitchen with Narcissa Black doing domestic chores, she would’ve committed herself, certainly, but nonetheless, here they were. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Perhaps the bigger surprise to her younger self would’ve more been that she actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>liked</span>
  </em>
  <span> Narcissa. She was similar to Andy, certainly sisters in mannerisms alone, but wherein Andy had a softness about her, Narcissa had none, sharp wit, sharper intelligence, all gilded in the deceiving package of a proper lady. She was the type of woman Hermione had always imagined herself being friends with, which considering her current situation was rather fortuitous, their unfortunate shared past notwithstanding. But Narcissa was more than making up for those, slowly but surely, and that would be enough for her, though perhaps one day not for Andy. If this got any more serious, she might need answers, explanations, to make sure her sister never meant her harm, not truly, or at least not now. Andy was a very protective alpha so far, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which led her brain off on yet another wildly inappropriate sex tangent. She almost sent a dish flying into the wall but managed to get it under control and into the plate cabinet in one piece. She breathed a sigh of relief and put down her wand for a moment. Merlin, such an easy charm shouldn’t be so hard to control.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She about left her skin at the rather large crash overhead coming from around the area of Teddy’s room. Andy frowned from where she was standing and started moving towards the stairs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Better see what that was all about.” And then she disappeared up them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione shook herself and picked her wand back up. There were only a few plates left to go. She could get it done and then have a longer break, perhaps actually get back to the mystery of why her body and now her magic was acting weird. She rubbed her face, feeling like she was getting fuzzier quicker now. It was fine, just a few levitation spells. If a first year could do it, she could do it with a rather foggy brain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Except the next plate actually did slam into the wall and break. Wonderful. She crossed to the broken mess and started to pick up the pieces. It could be repaired easily enough, but she definitely didn’t trust herself to do it right now. She hissed as her finger slipped along a sharp edge and cut her. She pulled her finger into her mouth and whined. Well. That wasn’t exactly a dignified sound.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hermione?” Narcissa asked, stepping behind her, putting her hand lightly on her shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s fine,” Hermione said, taking her finger out of her mouth, the sting of the cut mostly soothed. “Just cut myself on the shards. No big deal, I’ve certainly had worse.” Her arm throbbed with the aforementioned worse wound, now scarred and healed as it could be from Andy working on it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let me see it. I’m not ‘dromeda, but simple, shallow cuts I’ve had plenty of experience healing. Draco was rather clumsy below the age of seven. I swore he wasn’t going to make it to eight, let alone Hogwarts.” She smiled at Hermione, holding out her hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione sighed and placed her hand palm up in Narcissa’s. She could’ve healed the wound easily enough too, but yet again, if she couldn’t send a plate across the room without accidentally throwing it into the wall, well. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa waved her wand over the wound and it healed instantly, leaving no scar. Hermione frowned at the crawling feeling she always felt when her skin was healed. As much as she preferred the quicker healing times of magic medicine, there was something to be said for just putting a bandaid on it and letting it heal naturally. At least in that case she never felt as if her skin had a thousand spiders crawling across it, brief as that sensation may be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All done.” Narcissa squeezed Hermione’s hand when a growl came from the doorway and they both turned to see a rather angry Andy looking at the two of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And just </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span> are you doing, Narcissa?” Andy asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione just stared at Andy. What in the world was wrong with her? She’d never growled at anyone before. She wasn’t like a decent amount of male alphas who lost their head over every little thing when it came to their someone touching who they thought was </span>
  <em>
    <span>their </span>
  </em>
  <span>omega. Even those men usually calmed down if it was just family near their omega. And Narcissa </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> both family and an omega. There should be no reason to growl at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Until Andy stalked closer and Hermione could </span>
  <em>
    <span>finally </span>
  </em>
  <span>smell the reason for every single problem she’d been having. She had been right earlier. Andy was going into rut early, though she was barely in the first stages now. She could only just sense it, but it was there, calling to her omega, willing her to come to Andy, willing her to do more than that. She wondered if Narcissa even could smell it yet, she was Andy’s sister, yes, but she wasn’t her partner. She was the one who would have the bigger reaction, she knew. Already she could feel her knees trembling and wondered just what it would be like when Andy hit her full rut. She had the deepest impression that it would be so much more intense than it had been during her heat when Andy had only been pulled into a sympathetic rut to help guide her through the cycle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa didn’t move her hand from Hermione’s, but she did tilt her head up and away, slightly baring her neck. Perhaps the other woman could smell Andy, then. “Nothing, ‘dromeda, she dropped a plate and cut herself picking up the pieces. I healed her since you were busy. Nothing more.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy took a deep breath and the looming presence she had made diminished somewhat. “What happened? Is something wrong, Hermione? You usually don’t drop things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just distracted…” Hermione trailed off, looking over Andy, brain seeming to get fuzzier by the minute. She wanted to walk over to the woman and drop to her knees, wanting to bare her neck for a bite, wanted to beg for children. She felt fire sparking in her stomach, the first embers of a sympathetic heat. She’d read what it would be like, to be an omega helping her alpha through a rut, but it had seemed more like she would be in control of herself. Sympathetic heats and ruts were never as strong, just allowing the person the physiological changes needed to complete the cycle and allow their mate relief, supposedly one remained much more lucid. But right about now she did not feel lucid at all. Maybe it was because it was going to be her first rut with someone, coupled with her first rut with Andy. Maybe it was because Andy herself was a rather powerful alpha. She wasn’t sure, nor did she really care, not in that moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Andromeda, when is your next rut?” Narcissa asked calmly. Her hand had once been warm in Hermione’s but now it almost seemed cool. She was warming up quickly then. Andy had to be hurtling towards full rut faster than normal. Then again, since her rut was early, that wasn’t wholly out of the ordinary. Off schedule ruts and heats were rather unstable things, sneaking up on people out of nowhere with little warning and coming on so fast it was rather hard to prepare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In three weeks.” Andy’s pupils were blown wide, and even as Hermione could see her try to maintain her composure, she could also see it slipping. There were flashes of a being that despite only being a five foot nine, one hundred forty pound woman, seemed to take up the whole room. It made Hermione whimper reflexively. She needed to see Andy unleashed. If Narcissa wasn’t here, perhaps she’d be begging for it already.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hermione, you heat was six months ago, give or take a day or two, yes?” She turned slowly to look in Hermione’s eyes, but Hermione couldn’t hold her gaze for long. She kept glancing back at Andy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” she finally managed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Almost as far away from each other as you could get then. That’s going to make your next few heats and ruts interesting.” The blonder mumbled more to herself than anyone else. “The fact that your cycles are trying to sync after one shared heat is another interesting fact.” She looked significantly at Andy, but Andy growled, louder this time than before at the prolonged eye contact.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hermione is my-my p-par.” She stopped, took a breath, and tried again. “My part--my par--my--” She snarled in frustration. “She’s mine! It’s not anything out of the ordinary.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Except. Narcissa was right, Hermione noted, almost as far away from her rational brain as the Earth was to the moon. A couple usually shared at least one heat and one rut together, if not one or two more, before their body’s strict schedules started to alter. Some biological stop gap to make sure they were a good, stable pairing to raise children. Not like people couldn’t get pregnant before that, but with a synced up rut and heat? It was a guarantee without outside intervention. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa’s eyes drifted back to Hermione. “Yes, she </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> yours, isn’t she?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione felt like she was getting at something else, but was too far gone to parse it just now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you have plans for Teddy?” Narcissa asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Harry was planning on taking him, but in three weeks, not now. I think he’s out on a long assignment for the week and Ginny is off on tour with the Harpies.” Andy scowled. “I can owl Molly. She should be able to take him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s visiting Charlie in Romania,” Hermione said, managing to have an actually lucid thought now. Teddy was too important to be scatterbrained about. She felt her protective instincts flare at the thought of the boy. He may not be hers biologically, but the omega side of her didn’t really see the difference. He was Andy’s therefore he was hers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Salazar’s ballsack, my body could not have picked a worse time, could it?” The older witch ran a frustrated hand through her hair. Molly and Harry were their usual standbys for childcare. There were perhaps other members of the Order that she would trust, but considering how quickly this was all happening, time for an owl back and forth wasn’t exactly on their side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I could take him…” Narcissa said quietly, as if she was unsure if it was her place to offer. “I know he just met me and might not trust me as he would Harry or Molly, but he would be safe with me. I would protect him with my life.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy looked her sister over with sharp eyes. “Teddy!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was another, smaller, crash and then the sound of little feet pounding down the stairs at a rather ill advised rate. It was a good thing that they had charmed them so that if he fell, he just landed gently at the bottom, no worse for wear. It still gave her hives every time she saw it, but he would be fine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He appeared a second later, hair mussed and smiling. “Auntie Cissa time?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy turned to her grandson and kneeled, gesturing him forward. He came without question placing himself a foot in front of her, waiting. Hermione could hear just the faintest vibrations of a purr from Andy as she reached out and straightened his hair gently. She loved the little boy, so, so much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know you’re very excited to get to play with Auntie Cissa. I have a question for you. Grandma and Hermione have to go on a trip for a few days unexpectedly. Would you like to stay with Auntie Cissa while we’re away or would you rather stay with Uncle Bill or Aunt Hestia.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Auntie Cissa!” He answered emphatically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright then. Why don’t you go pack three of your favorite toys, and only three or else you can bring none. Understand?” The little boy nodded with a big grin on his face. “Good. Hermione and I will be up there in a minute to help you pack some clothes.” She pulled him in and hugged him before shooing him off again up the stairs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he was gone Andy turned back to Narcissa and stalked forward. “I trust you with him. I do. But understand after everything this is a very big leap of faith at a much sooner junction than I imagined. Please, Cissa, please, don’t mess this up.” She growled, but it ended in a whine so plaintive that Hermione stepped into her side. “I don’t want to unleash the wrath of an alpha with a hurt child on you. I don’t want us to shatter again. But I will for him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know. I’d do the same. But you don’t have to worry, ‘dromeda. We’ll have a delightful few days together where I’ll feed him more than his fair share of sweets and we’ll play with whatever toys he has and then some. I’ll take care of him like he’s my own grandson.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good.” She tugged Narcissa forward, rather roughly into her arms and hugged her hard. Hermione, rather by default because of her position pressed into Andy’s side was included in the hug. She sighed, leaning into it, smelling Andy and Narcissa and her brain whispered quietly to her </span>
  <em>
    <span>mate</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>family</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but she could ignore those words for now. She was rather floaty otherwise anyway. Just her brain high on hormones. Nothing else. Nothing that felt so achingly true it might as well be fact. No.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy pulled back and grabbed Hermione’s hand. “Come, Hermione, I don’t think we have much time before I’m ordering you to do rather not safe for toddler viewing activities.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione groaned, but followed. “You can’t just say that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You especially can’t say it right after hugging your sister!” Narcissa called after them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Deal with it, Cissa, I still remember summer before your sixth year!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa didn’t shout anything back at them but Hermione was definitely left out of that joke. What in the world had Narcissa done then? But Andy was tugging on her hand, making them rather fly up the stairs, and if she opened her mouth to question, she might lose coordination in this state. She’d ask about it later. If she remembered. She rather thought that Andy was about to fuck her so hard she wouldn’t remember a good lot of this day. And really. She was ok with that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They entered Teddy’s room and separated immediately, going to different drawers and storage spaces, pulling out things that Teddy would need for the next few days with rather stunning efficiency considering they said nothing, and yet Teddy had everything he needed within minutes. Hermione zipped up the bag and handed it to Andy with a smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy looked down at Teddy who was rather focused on a pile of toys still, hesitating, hand going from one to another like a ping pong ball. “Tough choices?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teddy nodded rather gravely. Hermione felt herself melting all over again. She wanted at least three copies of Teddy, and she wanted them right now. Perfect timing really. Andy could provide that to her in just a few minutes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shook herself. Nope. No. Still wouldn’t be happening. Not yet. She would drink the potion and do the charm after Andy’s rut ended just like she had after her heat. She was just starting out at the ministry. She wouldn’t lose sight of her goals just because hormones were overpowering and Andromeda Black was the most beautiful witch she’d ever seen. There would be time for all that later. They were witches. They lived longer than humans. Plenty of time. She just had to focus on that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teddy finally picked out his magical train that could chug along on any surface, including the ceiling if he wished, his little carry case of matchbox cars, and of course his stuffed bear that he slept with that could tell him any children’s story he liked. He handed them to Andy with a smile and she nodded her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good choices. And I’m sure if you’re extra good your Auntie Cissa will delight in returning you with at least one new toy.” She glanced at Hermione and rolled her eyes to say it would more than likely be a mountain of them, even if they might be partly Draco’s old things instead of all new. Teddy certainly wouldn’t care, and it would certainly make his room an even larger mess than it was, despite cleaning charms and toy chests with unlimited storage compliments of Hermione and her undetectable extension charm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy offered a hand to him and he took it, walking him down the stairs to Narcissa, who had finished cleaning everything up and looked to be prepping quick finger foods and putting them under stasis. Hermione hadn’t even thought of that and she was thankful that Narcissa had, otherwise when they finally could spare enough time to eat, it would be rather awkward having to try and actually make something, especially during the first day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, Narcissa,” Hermione said, coming to stand beside her and helping. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, can’t have you two starving now, could we. Goodness knows Andy’s cooking has improved since we were young, but I rather suspect if she tried now she might just revert back to her rather inedible creations of her youth.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey! I’ve cooked in rut before! Remember, I raised a family without house elves and Ted was </span>
  <em>
    <span>hopeless </span>
  </em>
  <span>in the kitchen. The man could burn water.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you cook when your cycles were syncing?” Narcissa arched a rather superior eyebrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy closed her mouth and said nothing. Hermione blinked at that. Right she would’ve gone through this with Ted. She would know what rather unstable ruts were like. She was the only one here, besides Teddy of course, who didn’t. She didn’t roll her eyes, but only just. She hated being the least informed person in the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t think so.” She handed Teddy a couple small pieces of apple. “Here, dear heart, we’ll be off to my house in a few minutes. Tell me, have you ever seen a peacock?” Her smirk was rather evil. Hermione had heard tell that Narcissa had taken the peacocks that were Lucius’s pride and joy in the divorce, something about retribution for another past slight, but otherwise things had mostly been amicable. But now those peacocks would be living at Black Manor, she supposed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teddy shook his head, eyes wide. “No.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would you like to?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded his head so hard that his whole body was shaking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wonderful, then we have our plans for the afternoon. Just give me a few minutes to make sure your Grandmother and Hermione don’t get hungry in the next few days and we’ll be off.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok!” Teddy munched on one of the apple pieces happily, eyes shifting color to Narcissa’s sky blue from Andy’s dark brown. Oh by the time he got back from Narcissa’s it would be a miracle if he wasn’t an almost exact copy of her. That was going to be odd until someone else caught his attention again. But cute. Narcissa was beautiful as her sister, if different in about every aspect, she imagined Narcissa had been an adorable child. She supposed she would see.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They worked quickly putting together enough food to last them a few days until they would be sentient enough to walk around and sneak the time to cook. Hermione sighed when they were done, her omega soothed by the knowledge that their home would provide for them in their time of need. She felt herself slipping farther to base instincts, smelled Andy more and more, and knew it was good that they hadn’t waited to send off an owl to Bill or Hestia. It didn’t seem like they were going to make it. Narcissa had been a blessing in more than one way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blonde witch went to take Teddy’s bag from Andy, slipping it on her shoulder with the practiced air of a mom. The next second Teddy was on her hip, wrapped around her like a little spider monkey, smiling brightly. “Owl me when you’re done and I’ll bring this little gentleman back home.” And with that she turned on her heel and disapparated with a crack.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And that seemed to be exactly what Andy had been waiting for. All tension left her frame and Hermione had to catch herself on the counter because the wave of pheromones that washed over her was so potent she rather couldn’t control herself. Andy had been holding herself back as much as she could. Hermione looked at her with wide eyes. Merlin above, just how powerful of an alpha </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>Andy? Some alphas could hold back their ruts for a few minutes, enough to get home, certainly, but that was during a regular rut, not a disrupted one, and it had been longer than just a handful of minutes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hermione,” Andy said, voice carefully controlled. “This will be rougher than your heat. Do you understand and are you ok with that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, please, alpha.” The words were out of Hermione’s mouth before she could really think about them, but she did mean them. She trusted Andy with everything. This would be fine, even if she was even sorer than she had been after her own heat. That had been delicious in its own way, a reminder of what had happened. She’d been sad to see it go. Now here was the opportunity all over again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy snarled loudly and Hermione felt herself fully enter her heat at the sound. Her clothes felt stifling. She needed out of them right that instant. She tugged at the hem of her shirt, but another snarl stopped her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Fingers were around her wrists, iron tight, just shy of hurting. Hermione mewled her delight at the action. “You do nothing without my say so, do you understand? Nothing. I’m the alpha. What I say goes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione nodded, tilting her head to bare her throat. Andy hummed, appreciatively. “Exactly, love.” She leaned forward and nipped at Hermione neck hard, leaving an imprint just where a mating bite would go. “Now, on your knees and suck me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione dropped to the floor with such speed that she was sure she’d have bruises come morning. She reached towards the button on Andy’s pants, but stopped short. “May I use my hands?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy’s smirk was well worth the pause to ask. “Yes, to undress me. Past that, your mouth only.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione whined and nodded. Oh Godric. She desperately wanted to take Andy into her mouth up to the hilt. If she couldn’t use her hands, that would be the next best thing, except she hadn’t ever done that before. The blowjobs she’d given Andy during her heat had been over rather quickly, Andy pulling her off and fucking into her in the next second. Beyond that, well, she certainly had enjoyed eating Andy out in the six months between now and her heat, but that experience wasn’t going to much translate here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She unbuttoned Andy’s pants, drawing the zipper down slowly. Andy was already hard, she could see the outline of her through her pants. Such jeans must have been hell to have her shaft extend into. How had the woman not made a sound? Oh well, it was of no matter, she would be free soon and any aches would be laved away by her tongue. She looked up and met Andy’s eyes and she tugged her pants to the ground. Her eyes were hungry, devouring her with a look, demanding she do more. The older witch stepped out of them and kicked them off to the side, leaving her in panties definitely not designed for her current state. She broke eye contact to press her face against Andy and inhaled. Musk and the leftover hint of tang of Andy’s wetness from before her shift. She moaned, causing Andy’s shaft to jump against her mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t tease!” Andy demanded, a second too slowly. Hermione was already moving, already tugging down the panties, desperate to take the other woman into her mouth. Andy sprung free and in a moment Hermione captured the tip in her mouth, lashing it with her tongue, tasting her skin and the salty bite of precum. Andy’s hips stuttered, trying to shove more of her shaft into Hermione’s mouth but she stopped short. Oh no, that wouldn’t do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione sank down, tongue sliding against Andy, hollowing her mouth to suck, drawing back for a moment only to sink down further the next. She got a bit over halfway to where she wanted to be before Andy hit the back of her throat and groaned loudly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck, Hermione, why didn’t I let you do this before?” Andy’s hands found her way into Hermione’s hair and pulled her further down, demanding, not giving Hermione any choice on the matter and she loved it. Instinct was a hell of a drug, guiding her motions, letting Andy slip further inside her mouth, down her throat. It was hard to breathe, her reflexes had to be brutally suppressed, but she didn’t care. She did it without a thought because when she looked up, Andy was practically feral above her. The look she gave Hermione as her nose finally met the older witches stomach was one she’d remember in her wet dreams for the rest of her life, all consuming need and hunger and domination. She held Hermione there for a second before allowing her to pull back, to get a full breath before she did it again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to fuck your mouth,” was all the warning Andy gave after a few slow strokes in and our of her mouth before she was fucking her with abandon. Hermione moaned, holding her head in once place, allowing Andy to do all the work, just sweeping her tongue against the other woman and sucking her as hard as possible while breathing in the little instants she could. She felt her heat flare around her. Everything within her wanted her alpha to continue to use her how she wanted, but also her mind looked forward to being absolutely owned in this way, being fucked as she should, on her knees, head down, ass up, with Andy being as rough as she was now. She squirmed, wanting to touch herself, but remembering her alpha’s instructions. Not yet. Not until her alpha said to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If she ever did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Salazar, Hermione!” Andy cried out, slamming home one last time in Hermione’s mouth before spilling her load down her throat. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she swallowed again, feeling it slip down deeper inside her, filling her with even more heat addled warmth. That come had been in the wrong place. Surely her alpha would do the right thing next. And since she hadn’t knotted, that could be immediately. She wouldn’t go soft just yet, not this early in her rut.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy pulled back, slipping from Hermione’s mouth, still looking down on her, but a bit calmer now. “The edge is off at least, good girl, taking me like that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione preened. Considering she hadn’t even known she could do that, of course she was a good girl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would you like a reward?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What sort of question was that. “Of course, my alpha.” She looked up at her with wide eyes, hoping it was going to be the fucking she so desperately wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy held out a hand. Hermione took it without hesitation and her alpha pulled her up. Another arm swept under her legs and she was securely cradled in the older witch’s arms in a second. She felt a burst of happy pheromones leave her and she smiled and curled into Andy. She purred quietly. Her omega loved when Andy exhibited her strength like this. A good alpha was strong and her alpha was the best, so strong, so good at taking care of her. She never wanted another alpha.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She paused a bit at that thought. It’d only been six months. It was far too soon for that. But...she’d felt the same way during her heat, really. Something about this witch holding her just screamed permanence and her more rational brain would catch up eventually, she was sure, but for right now she was so very content knowing that Andy was her future.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good, I thought you might.” A turn and a crack and they landed on Andy’s bed in an instant. “But really it’s a reward for me, for behaving for so very long and not just taking you in front of my sister. My omega. Mine. No one should touch you beside me while I’m in rut. She should </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Andy snarled again, baring white teeth and Hermione went positively limp in her arms, waiting for her alpha to tell her what to do. “I’m going to tie you to the bed and you aren’t going to come until I knot you, do you understand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione keened, but nodded anyway. That was so mean. She was about ready to explode already. How was she supposed to keep coming for so long? She would figure out a way. She had the brain power, certainly, but Merlin help her in the meantime.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good girl. Incarcerous.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Silk ropes tied themselves around Hermione’s wrists, pulling them gently until they were secured above her head. Two more ropes bound her ankles, spreading her legs as wide as they would go without being uncomfortable. She tugged on the ropes, but they certainly weren’t going anywhere. Oh Circe, another rush of wetness coated her and Andy smirked down at her, all sharp teeth and a knowing look. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You like this, don’t you Hermione. Being tied up and at my mercy, like a good omega should. You just want your big strong alpha to take you, fuck you until you’re full of my babies, right?” She leaned down, licking up Hermione’s neck until she hovered over her, mouth only an inch away. “You liked getting your face fucked, but all you could think about was getting fucked in the right way. You’re desperate. You want me inside you so badly you’d do almost anything for it. Isn’t that right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded, a shallow movement so she didn’t accidentally headbutt Andy, but her brain was far too gone for her to actually speak in the moment. Andy’s words had interrupted all the synapses carrying rational thought and actions and now she was just a pile of nerves, raw, and wanting to be touched.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s too bad that what I want is for you not to come until I knot you, isn’t it? You’re going to try so hard to follow my directions. But, darling, I’m going to fuck you too well for that to ever be an option.” She kissed Hermione then, hard and demanding, dominating her mouth, claiming every part of it. Hermione didn’t even dream about trying to do anything other than accept it, to touch Andy’s tongue in reverence, to taste her fully and whine. She relaxed back into the bed, completely boneless, already half a second from coming. “And then when you can’t follow my directions, I have something delicious in mind as punishment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wasn’t it punishment enough to hold back her orgasm during a triggered heat? What in the world could her alpha have in mind? Her mind came up with a thousand different images, each one kinkier than the last, and she was definitely not helping herself right now. She squirmed below Andy, their breasts rubbing together, sending another shockwave through Hermione. Fuck, she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. She had to distract herself somehow from Andy but her only thoughts wanted to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>about </span>
  </em>
  <span>Andy. Andy was all consuming right now. Really, she had no regrets, but she desperately wanted to show her alpha that she was a good omega. She didn’t want to come, especially without even being touched. The older witch would look at her with such understanding disappointment and it would break her. She had to do better.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please!” She cried out, Andy’s mouth now on her neck, creating so many love bites that it would be impossible to go back to work without everyone knowing what she’d been up to while she was gone. A passing thought flitted across her mind. Tomorrow was Monday and she definitely wasn’t going to be at work, but she hadn’t owled, but then it was gone. She would have to deal with that later, because Andy was biting down again where her neck met her shoulder, pressure just barely light enough not to break the skin there and she had to cast her mind back to basic spells she knew not to come. Her omega cried. How could they not come when their alpha was claiming them so readily? She would understand. She would. But Hermione managed to hold back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, darling, don’t you want to be a good girl for me? I’m not nearly done teasing you and already you’re begging me.” Fingers caressed Hermione’s face. “Can’t you take just a little bit more?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She whimpered, a wholly distressed sound that had Andy pressing closer to soothe her, which just made everything worse. Godric, Salazar, Rowena, and Helga themselves help her. She needed strength. She needed a great deal more than that, really, but she would take what she could get. “Yes, alpha,” she managed, tongue feeling thick in her mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought you could.” And then Andy’s mouth was back on her again, nipping and licking, leaving no space unexplored. Hermione felt like a livewire, Andy completing the circuit with every movement, powering her towards a rather explosive orgasm that she </span>
  <em>
    <span>couldn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>have. It was so unfair. She had rather thought a lot of things unfair in her life, but this seemed to be the biggest offender so far.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy nipped each of her nipples in turn and Hermione jerked. The older witch smirked up at her before thankfully moving on. Anything more than just a nip and Hermione would’ve come and there would have been nothing she could’ve done to stop it. She had a feeling Andy knew that and had wanted to give her at least a sporting chance even if she wouldn’t allow her to win. Sometimes it was very obviously clear that Andy was a Slytherin, and this was certainly one of those moments, toying with her in such a torturously delightful way, especially when she was tied up and couldn’t do anything to even try and level the playing field. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She found her way between Hermione’s thighs, laying her head on one restrained leg, curls tickling her skin, sending her squirming yet again as Andy just laid there for a few long seconds, looking at her. “All of this is for me.” She reached out and ran just her fingertips through Hermione’s folds. She was so wet that even that action produced some rather obscene noises. Andy smirked against the skin of Hermione’s thigh and leaned forward enough to press a kiss to her clit. “You’re so ready for me. It would be a crime not to fuck you.” Her eyes met Hermione’s. “Unfortunately for you, I’m not opposed to a few minor misdemeanors for the right reasons.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione groaned, begging her with her eyes to change her mind, but Andy just leaned down again and started to lap at her folds. Andy’s tongue was normally wicked. Some of the best orgasms the other woman had given her had been with just her mouth alone, and Nimue, right now that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>about to help her, because Andy was going for broke, finding all those little places she knew drove Hermione wild and spending just enough time there to bring her to the edge and stopping, moving on to another place to repeat the same process. Hermione felt her sanity slipping away, felt what little rational thought she had left slipping behind her omega instincts which were sobbing for her alpha to just please either fuck her or let her come. Her body was so hot, so needy, so strung out, her alpha </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>to do something. She pulled against the ropes, tried to press herself into Andy’s face to get what little extra friction she needed to come, but Andy always seemed to be one step ahead of her. The ropes pulled her tighter so she could barely move and Andy pulled away every time she even so much as thought about trying to use what little movement she had left. She was just a being of need, falling into the madness of want when Andy finally, finally relented.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now you’re ready for me to fuck you.” She crawled up Hermione’s body and kissed her again, tasting of her own wetness and self-satisfaction. “And you're going to remember it until the day you leave this world for the next. Perhaps beyond.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione felt Andy positioning herself at her entrance and keened. “Yes, alpha, please, please, </span>
  <em>
    <span>please</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry, Hermione, I’ll take care of you. I always will.” And then she pushed inside her all at once, not giving her time to adjust, just going straight to fucking her hard and fast, making her whole body shake with it. Hermione felt herself light up from the inside, felt her magic finally release itself from her, felt it enter Andy, felt Andy’s slip into her in turn, and she </span>
  <em>
    <span>couldn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>hold back any longer. Andy was in her, she finally had almost everything she wanted, and it was too much after all the teasing. She came hard, muscles tensing tightly enough she knew she’d feel it for days afterward, before releasing again, sending endorphins rushing through her, soaking her in a chemical cocktail of pleasure that blocked everything else out. She wasn’t sure where she was, who she was, or what she was supposed to be doing beyond just basking in the glow of coming. She felt her magic slipping into Andy’s a little more, closer to being one whole instead of two seperate things. She sighed, wishing they would complete their mixing, knowing instinctively that that was the only thing that could make this better, save perhaps Andy having knotted her at the same time. And even still, she wished this could continue forever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But eventually she came back to herself, blinking and finding Andy above her, shaft still nestled inside her, smirking down at her like she’d won the best prize of them all. Hermione felt the last of the haze leave her as realization slammed into her. She hadn’t been supposed to come until Andy knotted her, and she decidedly wasn’t knotted now. Her insides clenched, wanting to be filled in that way now that she had finally, finally come. There were more important concerns now, like being bred by her alpha. Except. What if her punishment was that she wouldn’t be knotted? Horror washed over her and her omega writhed in her desperately, willing to do anything to prevent that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shh, darling, it’s more than ok.” Their magic was still connected. Hermione wondered if that meant the other woman could read her mind. She got feelings from Andy, sometimes whole thoughts, so it was likely. “I said we would both enjoy your punishment and I meant it.” Another wicked grin. “Well, perhaps at first you’ll be a pouting little omega, but I know you’ll like it, Hermione.” Her magic surged forward again, overtaking Hermione, and she felt more of Andy than she did herself. “I’ve seen you. I know you. And you trust me implicitly, don’t you, my little good omega?” And Andy started thrusting again, going just as hard as before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes!” And it was an answer and encouragement. It felt almost as if Andy was splitting her in half, she was fucking her so furiously, but Morgana herself, that’s what she wanted and needed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gonna knot you so many times,” Andy panted out, a hand coming up to smooth Hermione’s hair away from her face. “Would never not knot you. My omega. Mine!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything inside her relaxed at that. Good. Her alpha still wanted her, still wanted to knot her. Still wanted her children. Everything was fine. Frankly she knew her more rational self would roll her eyes at this line of thinking, but hormones were a hell of a drug sometimes. She just let herself feel the relief and everything would be worked out later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She felt another orgasm building. She wasn’t sure how after she’d just come so hard she might have left the planet to exist on another pleasure filled plain, but the telltale tingling at the base of her spine was still there, growing as Andy continued to fucked her butally, perfectly, hitting all the right places, sending her higher. A hand pinched at her nipples, twisting them hard, pulling them in a way that sent sparks right to her clit. She felt her mouth forming words, but she couldn’t register what she was saying. She was too focused on just what Andy was doing to her, just how well she was being fucked, just how good she felt. She saw Andy, brow beading with sweat, face curled in a permanent snarl, alpha pheromones coming off her in huge waves. It was possibly the hottest thing Hermione had ever seen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then Andy’s feral eyes met hers and she growled. “Come. Now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Hermione had no choice but to obey. She lost herself again in a golden haze, felt the magic roil under her skin, felt it purr within her and feed back into Andy, driving the other woman higher. Like this she could feel the exact moment Andy’s knot started to pop, it was a red hot zing of magic that screamed its purpose. She saw images, both hers and things that had to be from Andy herself, of children, different combinations of them, all beautiful, all perfect, and all wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then she was snapped back to reality as Andy’s growing knot started to slip in and out of her, growing bigger with every thrust. She screamed, begging if not in actual words, in tone alone. Andy leaned down to kiss her, catching all the sounds in her mouth as she kept fucking her, stretching Hermione deliciously more and more until she could barely fit inside. Andy pulled back and with a roar, forced herself inside Hermione for the last time, tying them together. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Andy wasn’t done. She kept thrusting, short little things, but still hard enough to shake the bed under them. Her knot pressed right against Hermione’s g spot, and she felt herself seeing stars, but for once her body was holding back, waiting, without Hermione having to think about it. She needed to come when Andy did, filling her up with her seed, breeding her, claiming her, needed to feel that completeness flowing through their magic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please, alpha, need you!” Hermione cried, wiggling as much as her tighter bonds would allow. She felt Andy twitching inside her, felt her holding back, and she whined. Why was she holding back? They both needed this. They both wanted this. She felt the passing thought of Andy wanting to engrave this on her memory forever, to send her to the farthest reaches of space, to work them up so much that the come down would be so long, that Andy would stay knotted in her for ages longer than normal, one for the record books. She didn’t care about that, she just wanted completion, but she was at the mercy of her alpha, and Merlin, she loved it as much as she hated it right now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy’s hips stuttered, rubbing her in just the right place, just enough and at the first jet of come hitting her walls, she screamed her release to the stars because she certainly felt more at home in the midst of planets than she did on the ground now. The feeling of being inside Andy, of switching bodies from the end of her heat came back full force and she felt herself pumping come into her body, feeling tug after tug, wave after wave of pleasure crash over her as she filled herself up, could feel Andy feeling what it was like to be so full, reveling in it, and Hermione felt her jaw ache with the need to bite and claim. This was too perfect. She needed Andy, Andy needed her. They were one. There was no way around that fact.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And yet it wasn’t quite time just yet. So she let it slip away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She fell back into her own body, coming down off the high in stages, feeling herself laying on the bed, feeling Andy collapsed on top of her, skin against skin, the swell of her stomach, full of Andy’s knot and come, the little aftershocks flowing through the both of them in turn, and finally she felt her mind returning bit by bit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She blinked her eyes open again to find Andy snoring quietly on her chest. She had to have been too overwhelmed but her rut to have stayed awake. Hermione smiled whispering a spell to release herself from the bonds. Her magic worked as it should, not clumsy fuzz this time. She felt clearer now than she ever had during her heat beforehand. Perhaps she just needed to get the first knot over with to reach that state of clarity everyone said was more inherent with triggered heats and ruts. She ran her hand through Andy’s hair, feeling the love she felt for this woman flowing through her easily. She hadn’t told Andy yet, had only been certain of her feelings for a few weeks, and had been waiting for the right time, but when her rut faded, it would certainly be time. She kissed the crown of her head and started to summon things quietly, her wand first, then water, one of the plates of food under stasis, a pen and some parchment, a quill and ink would be much too precarious right now, and she called softly for Neith. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bird flew into the room, looking happy to see her. She made a habit of taking the bird with her when she’d be at Andy’s for the weekend, not wanting to leave her alone, but Andy was more partial to keeping owls in the attic instead of her room. As such Neith was always happier to see her than normal when they stayed at Andy’s. She scritched the owl’s head and started to write her letters, one to her boss and one to Andy’s, explaining the situation. She attached the letters to Neith’s leg and fed her a piece of lunch meat from the tray of food.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you want to stop and hunt, that’s fine, you just need to get these to the recipients by morning, ok?” Neith hooted and Hermione smiled, waving her hand to open the window and the bird flew out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She drank some of the water she’d summoned and then sat back on the bed. Andy laying on top of her should really be too much to breathe easily, but it felt just perfect. Her omega was well pleased, content, happy, and so full. She yawned, the effect of three rather spectacular orgasms catching up with her. Well. If Andy was asleep, she might as well catch a nap. It would be a long few days of making sure her alpha was taken care of and satisfied after all. She wrapped her arms around Andy, feeling wonderful and safe, and drifted off.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>--</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Hermione woke again Andy was already teasing her body into readiness once more. She moaned and opened her eyes to find Andy nipping at the skin of her breasts, marking the territory she hadn’t on her first round. She sighed and arched up into the woman, feeling Andy still inside her, though her knot had deflated. A pang of sadness went through her and her omega whined. She was still definitely in heat then, but even now, being teased, there wasn’t that edge of desperation there had been before. Good. She could take care of Andy much better like this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then again. Andy pinned her arms to the bed and lifted herself above Hermione again. “Good, you’re awake. Don’t think I forgot your punishment just because I fell asleep.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, taking care of Andy could come in more than one form, she supposed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wouldn’t dream that you did,” Hermione said, more wetness seeping out of her as Andy’s grip on her arms tightened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And who said you could untie yourself?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A whimper slipped from her lips, but she didn’t look away from Andy. “I untied myself so I could take care of you. Good omegas take care of their alphas.” She nodded towards the water and food. “And I sent notice to our jobs that we won’t be in this week.” The exact things that Andy had done for her six months ago. She wasn’t about to be some omega who did nothing for her alpha without her alphas permission. Caring was exactly what an omega </span>
  <em>
    <span>should </span>
  </em>
  <span>do, an alpha should protect their omega, and really, diving deeper into all of that, they were the same thing and it was all expression of love, if aided by hormones at points.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy frowned but nodded. “Fair enough, but.” She pushed herself off of Hermione to lift her up off the bed, pushing her so her feet hit the floor while her upper body remained pressed to the bed. “Incarcerous.” And then she was tied there yet again. It seemed Andy in rut very much liked restraints. Hermione certainly didn’t mind. She wiggled, digging her hips forward, seeking pressure on her clit to try and relieve some of the tension building inside her. “This time I’ll decide when you’re untied.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well then. She would have to untie her once they were knotted together again so they could rest on the bed more fully. It was smart and it was dominant and it was more than a little bit of a turn on, frankly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, alpha,” she agreed readily enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy pushed herself off the bed to plaster herself to Hermione’s back, whispering in her ear, nails digging into Hermione’s shoulders deliciously. “Now, would you like to know what your punishment is?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded her head, wetness already starting to seep down her thighs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve never been spanked before, have you?” Andy purred in her ear. “You were always such a good girl, no one had much of an excuse, did they?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“N-no,” she answered, voice already unsteady. She hadn’t even known she’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be spanked until Andy had said the words and now she was frantic for it. Godric, she was going to have to look at Andy’s secret fantasies the next time their magic crashed together because otherwise it definitely wasn’t about to be fair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But then you couldn’t follow directions for me. What a shame, Hermione. You’re better than that, aren’t you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, it wasn’t like Andy had really given her the choice to be better than that. The woman was far too attractive and skilled in bed for such restraint to have been truly possible and it certainly hadn’t helped that that first burst of heat had been almost as strong as her real heat. Yet, “I want to be for you, alpha,” was what came out of her mouth instead of all of that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, darling, I’m glad. So you want to make it up to me?” She pushed herself off of Hermione, her hands coming to rest on the other woman’s ass, stroking it affectionately. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” she breathed, waiting, knowing what was coming next, anticipating it, wanting it so badly that it left a bittersweet taste in her mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then you’re going to take fifteen to your very lovely ass for me, and when I’m done you’re going to thank me for it. That’s all you need to do to be a good girl again, understand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione nodded emphatically into the blankets. “I understand!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good girl, I knew you would.” One of her hands left Hermione’s ass and Hermione waited a few seconds longer and then a few seconds more. She knew exactly the game Andy was playing, making sure she waited so long Hermione wasn’t expecting the hit, couldn’t prepare for it, and yet she wanted it so badly she wasn’t sure when that would be. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And yet Andy somehow found the right time when her mind had drifted to thoughts of what the stinging sensation would be like, what pleasure would arc to her brain, what sounds Andy would make doing it, and that’s when the first slap fell on her ass, bringing her back from her thoughts, making her cry out and push into the bed to get away from the sudden pain, grinding her clit into the bed, causing pleasure to roll over her, mixing with the pain, driving both higher.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh!” she cried out, wanting the next hit already.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One,” Andy said, pleased growl lacing her voice. And then the next came, harder than the first on the other cheek. “Two.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione was already shaking. Could she come like this? It was possible, she was sure, but she shouldn’t even think about that. Coming without permission was what got her here in the first place. She should ride out her punishment first before she “accidentally” got herself more. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another hit to the first cheek right over where the first had landed, stinging more, sending Hermione arching further away and pushing back into the feel all at once. She couldn’t decide. Didn’t want to. “Three.” Andy sighed happily. “Oh, darling Hermione, always so responsive.” Her fingertips traced over what had to be the outline of her hand on Hermione’s ass. “Skin already so red for me. I can’t wait to see just how red it is when I’m done.” And then the blows came faster, harder, furious, and Hermione lost herself in the stinging, burning, wonderful pleasured pain of it all. They were most certainly going to have to do this again when they weren’t in heat and rut. She wanted to know if it felt just as good then, if it got her going this much outside of heat. Because as level headed as she had felt before, this was driving her up a wall. She had let herself go and good Godric, what else had Andy seen in her deepest wants because this was too good. She needed to experiment with everything, needed to feel the uncaring, untethered pleasure of heat on a normal Tuesday night, and this felt like maybe, just maybe it could do that for her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fifteen,” Andy finally said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione was boneless against the bed, a few tears leaking from her eyes and she was smiling widely into the sheets. Salazar, her ass felt like it was glowing red hot, and that turned her on even more. She was </span>
  <em>
    <span>dripping</span>
  </em>
  <span>, so ready for Andy to fuck her it wasn’t even in the realm of amusing. She pulled in a breath. If Andy fucked her bent over the bed like this, her hips would slam into her already reddened ass, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>oh</span>
  </em>
  <span> that was only going to prolong this state. She desperately hoped that that’s what Andy had in mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Th-thank you, alpha,” she managed to stutter out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, you’re just as pretty like this as I imagined.” Andy leaned forward, plastering herself to Hermione’s back again, trying to mold them together into one. Hermione could feel Andy’s hard shaft pressing almost where she wanted and she cried out, a small, pathetic little call to her alpha to give her the rest of what she needed again. Andy’s teeth found her shoulder again, biting down and Hermione’s mind went blank except for the feeling of almost being utterly content. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy finally let go and kissed the ever darkening bruise she was making. Hermione was going to have to wear scarves for weeks at this point. Which considering it was January, at least that wouldn’t be suspicious, though perhaps turtlenecks would be better for indoor use. But a part of her didn’t want to do that. A part of her wanted to show off the mark, to let everyone else know she was claimed in everything but in name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now that you’ve learned from your mistake, are you going to repeat it again?” Andy asked, kissing up Hemrione’s throat until her lips were hovering above Hermione’s once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll try, alpha. I might need more practice. You’re so good.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy smirked as she kissed her. “That’s alright, darling, practice makes perfect. I’m sure you’ll learn your lesson soon enough. You’re so very, very, smart.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then Andy entered her again, just as hard and fast as the last time, standing up again, gripping Hermione’s hips hard enough to bruise as she fucked her relentlessly. Her clit hit the bed just as it had before, but now over and over, even harder and harder. She wasn’t going to last like this, even with a clearer head. But she could distract herself a bit more. She thought of arithmancy problems, solving them in her head slowly even though they were relatively low level. She was rather otherwise occupied so she gave herself a break. And it worked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Until Andy ran her nails down Hermione’s back, leaving stinging lines that she was sure were bleeding. That pain mixed with the pleasure just like the spanking had. Fuck, oh fuck, she’d left scratches on Andy before and the other witch hadn’t seemed to mind, if anything they’d encouraged her, but she hadn’t much returned the same treatment. Her marks were more bruises and love bites, which Hermione was fine with. A hickey on the inside of her thigh was their little secret and it felt delightfully naughty, but now? She wouldn’t want scratches like this every day, but on occasion, oh she was going to need this too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Andy!” She cried out and she could practically feel the older witch smirking behind her. She wanted to touch her, wanted to pull her down on top of her ruined back, to feel the new sting of skin on skin, but damn the ropes were still as tight as ever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re so close already, aren’t you?” Andy’s voice was understanding pity and damn it that shouldn’t turn her on more, but it did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes!” Hermione cried out. There was no use denying it. Andy could probably feel her insides clenching, getting ready to come. She had to start thinking of something else again and maybe she could stave it off. Hogwarts: A History, should do. She had the thing memorized from cover to cover. She just had to remember her favorite passages. She liked the ones explaining why the stairs moved as some of the best. It hadn’t made sense to her before reading. Why in the world would you want your students to get lost or be late to class? But honestly, after first year, she hadn’t even thought about it. The stairs had a pattern that students learned, consciously or no, but outsiders wouldn’t know. They’d be the ones lost in a siege. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And she was snapped out of her thoughts by Andy’s hand in her hair, pulling her up as the ropes loosened just enough to allow the action. It burned, it felt like her scalp might just come right off, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>Morgana</span>
  </em>
  <span> it almost tipped her right over the edge. She brought herself back, but only barely. She panted out, arching backwards towards Andy to try and lessen the pull, but it didn’t do much. She was still being almost pulled to fold in half backwards, there was no real lessening the pain anymore than she already had, and yet it wasn’t too much for her to handle. She felt Andy’s magic with hers, almost monitoring her to make sure she didn’t go too far. She sent a surge of gratefulness to her, magic licking along each other, slipping in and out of each other, feeling like nothing more than an energetic manifestation of love.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Being like this changed the angle of Andy’s thrusts. She could somehow go deeper, she felt fuller, felt Andy’s hitting the back of her channel and her omega was practically going insane at the feeling. She felt Andy’s hand shift from her hip to her ass, grabbing hold possessively, massaging the abused flesh, feeling wonderful and terrible at the same time. Her brain was so confused now. Everything felt like pleasure, everything was wonderful, nothing hurt and she was on a high of endorphins that she never wanted to end. Shifted in position like this, her clit had even more contact and she couldn’t much help it when she finally came, screaming Andy’s name to the ceiling, feeling their magic crash fully together again, sending her to some whited out space where all that existed was being loved and being fucked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she came down again, that’s exactly what Andy was still doing, fucking her just as hard as before, no sign of her knot in sight. How in the world did the other woman even do it? If she was an alpha she was sure she would’ve popped a knot by now. Then again, Andy did have experience. She wondered just how much the other woman was having to hold herself back, just how well she’d learned the skill she was trying to teach Hermione. She whimpered and squirmed back into her alpha, begging for the completion they both wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You came early again, Hermione.” The words were understanding still, but in that caring way that made Hermione always strive to do so much better the next time around. Fuck, why did Andy have to have that tone of voice down? It would drive her crazy, she was sure. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, alpha!” The words came out a scream at a particularly hard thrust from Andy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s ok, my darling girl, you did better than last time. I’m proud of you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione felt her insides clench and she was about four seconds away from yet another orgasm at the words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But we’re just going to have to keep doing this over and over again until you get it exactly right like a good girl.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione nodded, the action pulling at her hair even harder and she keened, hands gripping the ropes tying her to the bed, trying to find some sort of anchor to keep her where she needed to be. Andy was giving no quarter, though, and now her body was over sensitive from the previous orgasm and not coming had gotten a fair amount harder. She cursed and blessed her body for the betrayal. She’d always liked a challenge and she certainly loved the pleasure she was feeling now, almost lost in it again, feeling the heat hormones spiking in her, trying to call forth Andy’s knot by sheer will alone. It wasn’t working, but she was going to make Andy knot or she was going to die trying. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There had to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> she could do to get Andy to come unexpectedly. She was an omega. Omegas had ways to make their alphas obey them, right? It hadn’t been in any of the books she’d read, but all the gossip trash magazines said there was, they couldn’t all be completely full of it. Granted, they weren’t probably all that applicable to Andy, but she knew Andy well enough she could figure out something. Well. Maybe if she could actually use her brain, but it was rather out to lunch for the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finding what made Andy tip over the edge was rather an accident, really. Andy continued to fuck her, one hand in Hermione’s hair pulling, the other still on her ass, smoothing over the skin between hard strokes. Until one of her fingers accidentally slipped between Hermione’s cheeks and grazed her other opening. Hermione clenched, a mix of unexpected pleasure and mostly a sense of ‘no thank you’ rolling through her. She tensed harder as Andy’s finger flexed, slipping in just barely, and then Andy’s hips were stuttering on her thrusts, fingers finding elsewhere to be as she came inside Hermione without knotting her. Her knot still hadn’t even popped yet as far as Hermione could feel, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>Merlin</span>
  </em>
  <span> the feeling of come painting her walls was too much yet again. She came with a cry, joining Andy, feeling her in that blissful headspace with her, feeling the love they shared and she sighed, even as she thought she might rather pay for making her alpha come without knotting her. She could deal with another punishment. The first had turned out so delightfully anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Hermione, that was an underhanded trick, I expected better from you,” Andy purred in her ear. “Such a bratty move, sinking me to your level.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was an accident,” Hermione panted, still not fully recovered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Be that as it may, I can’t let it stand.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione felt one of the ropes binding her feet loosened and then Andy’s hands on her leg, shoving it up on the bed, spreading her impossibly wide. The older witch let go of her hair, letting her fall forward again and the ropes retracting once more to hold her down. More ropes secured her leg in place, holding her knee to her body tightly. She’d been spread before, but this was taking it to another level. Her omega squirmed in anticipation. She had a feeling she was going to get exactly what she wanted tied up like this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Comfortable?” Andy asked, hands massaging Hermione’s ass again, working abused muscles and turning them rather into goo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” she breathed, waiting on the edge, waiting for Andy to start fucking her again. Having her leg up like this changed everything. If she had felt full before, now she felt like she was rather being split in two she was so full. When Andy started to fuck her like this she was going to feel </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She felt herself grow wetter and wetter at the thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good.” And then Andy was fucking her once more. Hermione screamed. There was no other word for the noise she made, rather inhuman, high and begging, for what Hermione wasn’t sure. She needed knotted again, that was sure, but like this? Her body was so conflicted, so full, magic beating against her skin, pushing against Andy’s, in a whirl, a rush, a tsunami, trying to break, but not yet. They couldn't yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gods, you feel wonderful like this. Gripping me like such a good omega. You want my knot the right way like a good girl, don’t you? Not going to make me come early again, are you?” Andy crooned above her, keeping that same brutal pace without breathing hard. Her omega squirmed in pleasure at the thought. Her strong, fit alpha. When they had kids they would be strong like their mother. Hermione gripped the ropes around her wrist tightly again moaning as the image of herself having Andy’s children combined with a particularly hard thrust and she almost was a bad girl again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alpha, </span>
  <em>
    <span>please</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Hermione begged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shhh, Hermione, I’ll give you what you need. Patience. Don’t you know I’ll take care of you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione whimpered but nodded into the sheets. Her alpha would. She knew she would, but she didn’t feel even the beginning of her knot. How long could she hold out now that she’d gotten the first one out of the way? She’d already held back so long with her first knot. And here she was driving Hermione up a wall again, making her lose her mind even though she had felt so clear before all of this, and not giving her what she wanted when she needed it. Oh, it would feel even better later she knew, but damn it, there was no later in heat, only </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy snarled, the noise sending another gush of wetness rushing from Hermione. She </span>
  <em>
    <span>finally</span>
  </em>
  <span> felt the beginning of her knot popping but it wasn’t enough. Circe if Andy would let her move, let her fuck back into her with some force she could get it to swell faster, but she had a feeling if she didn that she’d only be made to wait longer than she already had and she couldn’t take that. She was on the cusp of yet another mind blowing orgasm, and really, when Andy was fucking her through her heat, was there any other kind? But no, this one would be even better, filled to bursting just by her shaft alone, her knot would feel so, so big in this position. It would be worth the wait. And when she was sore in a week from being knotted like this, she would remember and she would be ready for her alpha to take her again outside of heat and it would be delicious. She just had to hold on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both Andy’s hands slipped to her hips again, pulling her back hard as her knot got bigger with every thrust. She grunted continually and Hermione didn’t think there was a more attractive sound in the world than her alpha fucking her knot in and out of her, trying to last another few strokes. Andy slipped in slower and slower as her knot got bigger, the force of each stroke more and more. Hermione felt herself babbling, begging for the knot, needing it, trying to do anything she could that Andy allowed her tied up like this, to make it happen that much sooner. She was on the edge and falling off it would be glorious. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck!” Andy screamed, forcing in her knot for the last time and coming inside Hermione in great filling streams. Hermione let herself come finally, body arching off the bed, seeking Andy with her magic, blending themselves together again, feeling her mind enmesh with her alpha. They were one, or as one as they could be without a mating bite between them. She felt both herself collapse on top of the bed and Andy fall on her, one as they were. Felt arms wrap around herself. Felt the bonds she’d been tied up in disappear. They hovered without a thought to the middle of the bed, still pressed together. Their magic placed her gently on the middle of the bed, Andy still on top of her, and then started to fade back into themselves again. Hermione knew she was going to pass out as soon as the magic faded. She held on to Andy, basking in the feeling of knowing her so intimately, feeling the other woman do the same, before she could hold on no more.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>--</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hermione found her way to the kitchen finally on day three. She wanted something hot to eat and it seemed like Andy would actually sleep for more than a couple hours this time. She was a bit thankful. With every knotting she took her sympathetic heat waned more, oh she was always ready for her alpha, but that limitless energy that she’d had during her heat to be fucked wasn’t quite at the same level. She wondered how Andy had even kept up with her on her heat. She’d been so needy, especially with all the complications added by starting her heats so late. Then again, witnessing the other woman’s stamina now, enhanced by rut as it was, well, maybe it was no wonder she had kept up with Hermione. But she wasn’t the other witch and she definitely needed a break. She definitely needed pancakes with lots of syrup too. Carb loading after strenuous activity wasn’t remiss after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She set to making pancakes, mouth watering as she started turning out golden brown cakes on a plate with a warming charm over it. She’d need a good stack for both her and Andy considering how much they’d been doing on fairly little food. The plates Narcissa had prepared them had been wonderful when they’d actually managed to pause long enough to eat something. During her heat they’d managed to stay awake more after knotting. This time her body seemed more remiss to just pass out. Which, while she did feel better rested than she had during her heat, well, they weren’t eating or drinking as much as they should. Pancakes would do wonders for them, she was sure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She flipped the last one out of the pan just as she heard footsteps on the stairs. Andy must be up then. She glanced at her pancakes and frowned. She had a feeling that she wasn’t going to get to eat them anytime soon. She sighed and made sure the warming charm would stick before she turned to the doorway to the kitchen. Andy appeared there a few seconds later, looking hungry, but not for food. Well, she’d certainly be right. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She walked over to Andy slowly, breathing deeply, smelling the rut flare on her, feeling the pheromones pull her into another heat wave. She shivered, her skin heating easily, looking at her rather perfectly formed alpha. She slipped into Andy’s arms and leaned up to kiss the other woman tenderly for a few long moments, her alpha allowing her. She purred against Andy, loving the slow sensuality that had been absent during the first few days they’d spent together. She pulled back from the kiss, tucking her head into Andy’s neck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Any chance that you’d be persuaded into having some pancakes before you take me bent over the kitchen island?” Hermioner asked, kissing where one day she was now absolutely certain she’d bite and claim Andy as hers when they were both ready.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Andy said, growl rumbling in her chest, grip tightening on Hermione. She could feel precum already leaking out of the older witch’s shaft. Would they even make it upstairs like this? “No more waiting. I waited for you to come back to bed, thought maybe you were just in the bathroom, but you took too long. Need you now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They certainly weren’t going to make it upstairs then.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where?” Hermione breathed, rubbing her thighs together, trying to get relief from a pressure that had come on suddenly at Andy’s growl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy didn’t answer, but picked her up again and carried her to the kitchen table. She had a feeling that when she wasn’t in rut Andy was going to scourgify the table within an inch of its life after they did this. There was nothing really dirty about what they were about to do to the table, but well, Teddy did eat at this table. She could see why it was going to happen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She could also intimately feel why it was going to be necessary to do later. Andy was hard against her and already pressing inside gently. Hermione felt her spine lose all structural integrity at the pressure and she collapsed back on the table, letting Andy slip in more easily. She shuddered at just how well Andy fit inside her. They had been made for each other, she was sure. They’d had a roundabout way of coming into each other’s lives, truly, and it was still early, but honestly, between her heat and Andy’s rut, their magic combining, knowing all of the other woman and being known in return? None of it mattered. She was Andy’s. Andy was hers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alpha,” she sighed as Andy finished pushing in. She relaxed entirely, waiting for Andy to move and call the shots. She didn’t mind now. And when she objected...well, was it really a punishment if she wanted it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mmm, Hermione.” The table was at the perfect height for Andy to slip in and out of her. She did so slowly at first, letting them both savor the moment. Three days in and nothing was quite so urgent. Andy hadn’t been quite as demanding either, though a part of Hermione missed that. She was sure the other woman could be talked into it again later when they were done dealing with her rut. She’d seen Andy was interested, after all. Perks of knowing her inside and out after three days of being magically thrown into Andy mind and body and paying attention to the glimpses she saw. She supposed she should’ve known before. Andy did have that rather sexy, all knowing, patient, strict but fair Professor vibe. How could her want for control be a surprise? Hermione wasn’t mad about it anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So good.” She reached for Andy’s hand, drawing it up to her breasts. Every time she’d tried to touch herself in any way when she was untied the older woman had told her she was a naughty girl. She’d learned rather quickly to reach for Andy and she’d gladly do the touching instead if she gave her those big puppy dog eyes she knew she had.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Should knot you in every room of the house,” Andy snarled, starting to fuck her faster.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, you definitely should.” She imagined herself bent over the couch being taken from behind, in the garden against the pear tree she so liked to sit under and read when the weather was nicer, in the shower in the bathroom, held up by sticking charms so she couldn’t slip, in the guest bedroom just for a change of scenery and to make it smell wholly like them, in the hallway on that rug she hated that she’d be sure to squirt all over and ruin and what a </span>
  <em>
    <span>shame</span>
  </em>
  <span> it woulld be to have to get rid of it and replace it with something prettier and more stain resistant so they could fuck in the hall again with no consequences, on the balcony with no privacy wards, just daring someone to look up and see what they were up to. Hermione could see every possibility and she sighed, clenching down on Andy and feeling the vibrations of her cursing more than hearing it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Knot you on the front lawn so everyone can see you’re mine,” Andy panted. Her thrusts sped slightly from the slow, hard rhythm she’d started with. Hermione groaned in response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not lawn on the lawn on the roof. No one could get to us up there. Don’t want anyone else to touch you but me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy’s growl was deafening. Clearly she hadn’t thought about being out where everyone could see might mean being out where other alphas could touch her. And clearly she didn’t like that thought. Hermione’s omega preened at her alpha’s possession even has her more rational self rolled her eyes. She certainly didn’t need Andy to be possessive of her, at least outside of rut. She wasn’t going anywhere. But now, well, it sent another gush of wetness out of her to leak down onto the kitchen table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one touches my omega but me!” Her thrusts became bruising now and Hermione could do nothing but cry out after every single one. Her alpha was filling her so well, fucking her closer and closer to orgasm even though her body felt too wrung from pleasure, like it shouldn’t be able to come again. And yet she knew she would, multiple times even just in the next few minutes. How many punishments did she want to willingly wrack up? The last one had been...well it had rather been torture until the end when it had been more mind blowing than Hermione cared to think about. Andy had given her permission to come as many times as she wanted and had fucked her over and over again, coming inside her every few minutes, but never knotting her. It had driven her heat addled brain more and more insane until Andy had finally relented when she’d deemed her lesson learned. She could feel just a little more of Andy’s magic now permanently living inside her after that performance. She shivered even thinking about it. Could she stand another punishment like that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yes. Yes she definitely could, she decided rather immediately. But now, or later was the real question then.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yours, alpha,” Hermione breathed, squeezing down on Andy again. Experience had been that her favorite punishments had been the result of making Andy come early. And if she wanted it now. Well, she wanted one of those, and she had a decent idea of how to get it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy bent forward, hands landing on the table, gripping so hard her knuckles turned bright white. Her frame was so taught even as she kept fucking Hermione. She was trying rather valiantly not to come, not to give Hermione exactly what she wanted, but Hermione wasn’t about to let her. She reached up and pinched Andy’s nippples hard, sending her hips stuttering and then finally she felt come coating her walls, warm and vital. Her instincts sighed, somewhat satisfied for now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hermione,” Andy said, opening her eyes. They were dark, feral black, no trace of warm brown remaining. “Did you do that on purpose?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And if I did, alpha?” Hermione smiled up at her beatifically. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought you wanted to be a good girl for me, omega.” Andy reached out and grabbed Hermione’s shoulders, tugging her until she was sitting up, face to face with Andy once again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do. Most of the time. Sometimes, though, being a little bad is fun, isn’t it?” She tucked herself into Andy’s chest, sighing at the scent of her alpha, reveling in the calm before the storm. Andy’s hands found her hair and started to stroke through it lightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sometimes, though, not right now, not when we had an understanding. Oh, Hermione, what will I do with you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Punish me again?” Hermione tried not to put too much hope in her voice. If she did that her punishment might be that there was no punishment at all, and where was the fun in that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, that was given, but it rather has to be something special to make sure that my little naughty omega never tries testing me again during my rut, doesn’t it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione clenched hard on Andy, still sheathed inside her even now. If Andy was coming up with something </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> memorable than the last punishment, what in the world was she going to do? Oh </span>
  <em>
    <span>Merlin</span>
  </em>
  <span>, maybe this time she’d gotten in a bit too deep, and yet she was still so very excited to see where it went.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Andy,” Hermione breathed, her arms tightening around the older witch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lie back again, darling.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione did as instructed without question. Andy gave her one last disapproving look before she was fucking her again. Her mind raced. Just what was she going to do to her? Somehow this return to normal activity was worse than knowing what was coming, because she knew Andy had something in mind. She could see it on the other woman’s face, in the upturn of her lips, she was rather convinced that whatever she had in mind would put Hermione off from inciting her...for at least the rest of her rut anyway. Hermione wasn’t one to </span>
  <em>
    <span>truly </span>
  </em>
  <span>be deterred from what she wanted in the long run.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She felt herself building quickly towards an orgasm despite her apprehension. Andy was pulling out all the stops. If she came without a knot in her, she was sure Andy had a plan to make her punishment that much more. She squirmed, trying to distract herself. She could think of how good the pancakes she’d made would taste after getting knotted again. She could sit in Andy’s lap as they both ate together, still tied intimately. It would be soft and wonderful and she looked forward to it. She always wanted to feel closer to the older woman and something about that scene just screamed closeness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was ripped from her distraction by Andy’s fingers on her clit. She arched off the table with a scream. Oh, her alpha wasn’t playing </span>
  <em>
    <span>fair </span>
  </em>
  <span>then was she? She wanted Hermione to make her own punishment worse. As much as they’d been working, she still would come before Andy could knot her and that was when Andy touched her no other way than just fucking her, worked up as she was in her heat. Fingers on her clit as well? She was a goner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Andy,” she whined, unable to say more, to pout at how dirty she was playing. All she could do was keep herself on the edge, hands clenched into fists, nails digging into her palms, the pain grounding her a bit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You want to come so badly, don’t you, my naughty omega,” Andy purred, looking down at her smug as could be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes!” Her hips bucked at a particularly good thrust. She bit her lip hard, tasting a bit of blood, iron and copper coating her tongue. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, that would be too easy.” A wave of magic washed over her and Hermione waited for the effect. Nothing seemed to change, she was still on the edge of coming, still holding back, knowing she was only a few seconds away from failing. Andy’s fingers hit just the right place at the same time her shaft did, and Hrmione waited to be thrown over the edge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Except. She wasn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She groaned so loud it hurt realizing what was happening. Andy’s spell had been to keep her from coming until she allowed it. If she couldn’t give Andy what she wanted, she would just take it from her. Hermione shivered as Andy didn’t skip a beat, fucking her hard, fast, hitting all the right spots. And she felt her body slam against the urge to come but that last little spark wasn’t there. She felt herself building and building more, higher than she’d been ever before, felt her magic reaching out and changing things in the kitchen, felt something growing along with her pleasure, felt so many things at once. It was overwhelming, all consuming, it was everything and never enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then she felt the beginnings of Andy’s knot. She keened. Andy would let her come with her knot in her, she was sure, that was what she wanted Hermione to do. It would only be fair. She squirmed towards her alpha, still feeling so boneless against the table, but she needed to be just that little bit closer to Andy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You want my knot, my good girl?” Andy’s fingers found her nipples, pinching, adding to the growing wall of pleasure held back that would soon break free and flood through her, destroying her, but making way for something better in its wake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes please,” Hemrione begged. She grabbed on to Andy’s wrist and held her. She felt as if she would fly off if she didn’t touch her alpha somehow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to give it to you, don’t worry.” And the older witch slipped inside her, pushing hard until she locked in. Hermione whimpered, waiting for the wave of pleasure to wash over her, but it didn’t. And neither did Andy fill her with come. Hermione cried out, surely Andy would take off the spell. This was affecting her too. And she wanted to breed Hermione. She’d seen that too, seen how much she wanted those children with her some day, seen how much her alpha didn’t care, wanted Hermione as her mate now, wanted to breed her now. So why wasn’t she coming inside her like she should. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A-Andy,” she choked out, tears clogging her throat as her body came to terms with the fact that they weren’t being allowed to come even while knotted. She had been right, this was a punishment that would make her rethink testing her alpha for at least a little while. She felt tears leak down her face as she waited to her alpha’s answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You wanted pancakes earlier, didn’t you?” Andy picked up Hermione from the table and carefully turned her over on the table, minding their tie. Andy’s knot turned inside her, hitting new places, drawing more feeling from her. Hermione screamed, feeling the pleasure build up inside her bigger and bigger, waiting, wanting, but there was nowhere to go. Everything just felt better and better and she was breaking apart. Then Andy carefully picked her up from the surface of the table and pulled them both into a chair, holding Hermione on her lap nicely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione keened at the position. This was just what she had imagined earlier, but that vision had her full of Andy’s come and satisfied as they ate their food, warm and happy. This wasn’t that. She needed that not to continue to wriggle on her alpha’s lap searching for what she </span>
  <em>
    <span>desperately </span>
  </em>
  <span>needed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please, please, please alpha,” Hermione continued to beg. She’d never felt like this before, so overcome, so wanting, so denied, even during her heat. Andy had brought her to a new space and all she wanted to do was anything her alpha needed to let her come.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy summoned the warmed plate of pancakes and split the serving in two, on to two plates, arms working around Hermione in her arms. The slight jostling served to move the knot around in her more and Hermione slumped back against Andy. She couldn’t help it. She was too overwhelmed. There was no way a witch’s body was supposed to contain this much pleasure, and yet she watched as Andy poured syrup on on the pancakes and started to cut them up, slowly, no end to her torment in sight. Just what did this all mean, what did Andy want from her. She would give her anything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Andy put a forkful of pancakes, perfectly wet with syrup up to Hermoine’s mouth. She smelled the sugar, smelled Andy around her, and it made her mouth water. “Eat the entire plate of pancakes, then you can have what you want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione whimpered. That would take so long. She needed her orgasm and Andy’s come now. “Please, alpha, need you now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, this is your punishment. Do as I say, you earned this by being willfully naughty. Do you understand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione moaned weakly but nodded. She leaned forward and took the bite into her mouth and started to eat. Maple burst across her tongue, the fluffy pancakes melting in her mouth as she chewed. They really did taste wonderful, but it would taste so much better if she were satisfied right now. She felt her pheromones begging Andy for what she wanted even as she swallowed obediently and waited for her alpha to bring her the next bite. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy fed her piece by piece until the plate was empty, her knot still filling Hermione the entire time without giving her the come she needed to feel truly full. Every little movement sent off another rocket of pleasure through her and she felt like a star about to go supernova and then collapse back onto itself into a blackhole. It was all consuming, too much to be contained in one being. And yet she had to focus on chewing and swallowing at the same time. The dichotomy was driving her even further up the wall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good,” Andy said when the last piece disappeared from Hermione’s plate into her mouth. “Now cut up my pancakes if you would be a good girl, won’t you baby?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione nodded, slowly cutting the pancakes up into perfect pieces. Andy tugged the plate away from her and she watched as Andy slowly cleared her own plate too. She turned enough to meet Andy’s eyes, dark and flinty, almost feral looking back at her. Those eyes dared Hermione to beg for what she wanted. They promised that this would go on until Andy wished it over, and if she tried to do something to force Andy’s hand, it would only last longer. Hermione shivered, melting back into Andy’s arms again as her body screamed at her to submit fully to her alpha and she would get what she needed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Andy,” she whined again when her plate was half empty. She’d been so patient, and even that look couldn’t stop the words bursting out of her. She’d been too patient. Without magic it wouldn’t even be possible. Why should she be asked to do impossible things? And yet however badly she wanted to come, her magic hummed happily at the treatment they were getting. Andy was giving her everything she needed even if it didn’t quite feel like what she wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Patience. I need sustenance too. We still have a day or two left of this, don’t we?” Andy’s voice was an iron purr, caressing her skin gently but with force waiting in the wings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Y-yes.” Hermione felt herself going even more boneless against Andy if it was possible. A day or two left of being treated as she was would be too much, and yet she still wanted it. She would always want her alpha, nothing, not even mind breaking pleasure and denial would change that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then you can afford a few minutes for me to continue to fuel up so I maybe fuck you through those days, can’t you?” Her free hand ran up and down Hermione’s side soothingly, though it did little to actually calm her, making her feel even more as it did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess when you put it that way,” Hermione huffed out. She tucked her face into Andy’s neck and breathed the other woman in. She smelled so good, and oh Merlin, she could smell just a bit of herself in Andy’s own scent. Mates tended to have rather blended scents after the mating bite, but Andy was already changing. She wondered if their interlaced magic had anything to do with it. She could think about that later, for now, it was just enough to smell Andy and relax against her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy hugged her harder, dropping a slightly sticky kiss to her collar bone. “Good girl.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The minutes ticked by and finally, finally, Andy cleaned her plate after having to endure piece by painful piece until Hermione was well and truly fit to be tied. Even though she already was technically tied. Did it really count if she wasn’t full of come?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy cleaned the plates with a wave of her wand and then Hermione was being carefully turned back so she could see Andy again. She smiled up at her alpha and Andy smiled right back. Finally, she was going to get what she needed, she could see it in Andy’s smile. She bared her neck encouragingly and whined, waiting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Light fingers caressed her cheek. “Do you want me to come inside you, Hermione? Do you want to be filled up with me?” Andy breathed, leaning over Hermione to shove her knot a few centimeters forward and then back. Hermione started to pant. She couldn’t contain herself. Why should she have to?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes!” She yelled, unable to control her tone. Feeling Andy moving inside her with purpose after so long, after being built up so much, there wasn’t much she </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span> control right now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good.” And the spell finally lifted. Hermione felt herself on a terrifyingly high ledge, body so used to not coming that it took it that second to even realize that she could come again. And then it slammed into her like a fighter jet and she howled to the stars that she was entirely owned by this woman above her as she filled her with her essence. The back of her brain yowled about the idea that one day this would be for real, that she would let Andy come in her and not take the contraceptive potion afterwards or do the charm. That that little girl she’d been imagining would be real some day. She felt herself smile, felt herself be loved and love in return, feel it echo through magic, seeing in her mind’s eye as the kitchen came alive around them and then opened her eyes to find that her imagination had been right. The kitchen looked much like her bedroom had at the end of her heat. It had taken her three days to get the things off the walls. Hopefully her experience would help, otherwise, it would be an interesting three days. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve got to stop doing that,” Hermione said, starting to get her breath back after the shattering orgasm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy smirked down at her, satisfaction painting every molecule that made her. “Certainly smells nice at least. An air freshener we didn’t have to pay for.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione snorted but nodded agreement. It did smell rather wonderful, sweet and honeyed, just like Andy. The older witch wrapped her arms around Hermione and they just laid there for a long few minutes. Hermione knew that that punishment was supposed to make her regret disobeying Andy’s rules, but honestly, now that it was over and she felt like a Goddess? She felt like she could stand to be like this more often.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Hermione,” Andy whispered tenderly, brushing Hermione’s sticky hair off of the younger witch's forehead. “It’s far too soon, but even when you’re rather destroying my home with plants, I want you here all the time with me. Spending a rut with you like this doesn’t make that want any easier.” Her eyes locked on Hermione’s. “I love you, my darling.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was the first time she’d said those words. First time either of them had. And this moment felt so right for it. Hermione felt her eyes slip shut and another wave of pleasure roll through her. Andy felt the same way as she did.  “I love you too. So much.” She drew the other woman into a gentle kiss. “You really want me to live here?” She loved her new apartment and the independence it brought, but she felt so much more at home here, with her alpha. She wanted to move in, but she agreed, it was too soon, but maybe...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do, but I know it’s barely been six months. I know it’s not a good time. We shouldn’t rush something like this. I would die if we ruined it by being hasty.” Andy tucked her face in Hermione’s neck, nose finding her hair and inhaling Hermione’s scent to steady herself at such distressing thoughts. Hermione wrapped her arms around the older witch and held her tightly. She’d fight tooth and nail against their destruction. Andy was too important not to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which was why it </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> a little soon, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t some sort of compromise that made them both happy and secure their stability in the future. “What if I moved in after my next heat. That will be a year, and a year of dating isn’t a weird scenario for lovers to move in with each other.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy thought it over for a minute and then nodded slowly, her hair tickling Hermione delightfully. “I suppose that is a reasonable timeline.” She dropped a kiss, bending a bit to reach the purple black bruise where neck met shoulder. She smirked into Hermione’s skin. “But by the end I guarantee you’ll be here more often than not that moving won’t much feel like moving so much as finally coming home. I don’t think we’ll be able to help ourselves. You’re rather irresistible.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione laughed, feeling warmth and affection flood through her. “Yes, well, I’m not opposed to that happening. I sleep so much better in your arms.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy pulled back to look at her, tenderness in every feature look, kissing the tip of Hermione’s nose. “I do too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Imagine how well rested we’ll be in another six months,” Hermione teased.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy’s eyelids started to drop closed. “I could go for a rest about now. Holding back that long took a decent portion of magic to do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Worth it,” Hermione immediately said. She gripped onto Andy and apparated them to the bedroom. They landed with a slight bounce on the mattress, jostling their tie a bit. Hermione felt herself pulled into another small orgasm and Andy followed with her. “If that’s how well you fuck me in the kitchen, imagine what the back garden will be like.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy’s growl was a tired but hopeful thing. “Always thinking ahead, aren’t you, Miss Granger.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am the brightest witch of my age for a reason.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy pulled her into a comfortable position for another nap, holding Hermione securely. “So you are. But I don’t imagine that this is what they thought of when they gave you that title.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shrugged. “More’s the pity.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Six days after that first day of rut, Narcissa walked back into Andy’s house, Teddy on her hip babbling at her happily, most assuredly looking just like a little Narcissa clone. It was cute if a bit weird to look at Narcissa and her fully rendered miniature at her side. Andy took him from her sister and hugged him to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Welcome back, darling, how was your week with Auntie Cissa?” She rubbed the tip of her nose against his and he squealed in delight. Andy spun him around and he laughed as she walked back into the kitchen where lunch was waiting for them. Hermione heard him launch into delighted babbles about his time with Narcissa as Andy gave him her full attention, setting him down on the counter as she waved her wand to fix the boy a plate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, better to let them have a minute then, yes?” Narcissa asked, stepping beside Hermione, pitching her voice low enough that Andy wouldn’t hear them from their position in the doorway. “I have a great deal of packages to bring in for our dear boy, anyway. Another wand would always be welcome for levitation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione looked at the other woman carefully. This rather seemed more like a transparent excuse to get her alone than anything else. Why would she want to have Hermione alone? Then it hit her. She’d just spent her rut with Andy, Narcissa had taken care of Teddy during it and he was obviously overjoyed at that fact. Narcissa had now deemed it both appropriate and safe for her to give Hermione the shovel talk. She rolled her eyes. Of course.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But followed Narcissa anyway without complaint. This was important for Narcissa, and it would be important to tell Andy about later. This growing rebonding between sisters, it was certainly progressing if Narcissa saw need to threaten her over hurting her sister. Hermione laughed to herself as they walked down the hall. She wondered when the Lady Zabini would get the same talk from Andy. Probably sometime soon considering how seriously Narcissa seemed to be taking her relationship with the other woman.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They finally emerged outside and the second they were the blonde turned to her with careful eyes. She reached for something in her sleeve and handed it to Hermione. “Just in case. I know my sister probably had one on hand being a healer and always being prepared, but...it was rather sudden. I know what can happen in those circumstances.” She shrugged, managing not to blush at all, and perhaps this was the only moment that Hermione envied all that training on how to be a lady in polite society, because that’s the only way Naricssa managed it, she was sure. Just what in the world had Narcissa and Lady Zabini gotten up to that they’d forgotten? She pulled in a slow breath. If their heat and ruts were syncing...perhaps Andy ought to have that shovel talk sooner than later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione smiled, coming back to the moment after noting to tell Andy of her suspicions, blushing just slightly. It was a sweet gesture from omega to omega really, but. “Andy made sure we already had some since they keep for 18 months. As soon as the last hormones cleared, I took one and then Andy and I both did the charm. Everything is fine on that front.” She lifted a shoulder in a half shrug, reaching out to pat Narcissa’s arm in thanks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa nodded. “Good, good, Anathema and I...well, it had been a while since either of us had had to worry in a great while, It slipped our minds the first rut.” She pursed her lips and blushed just slightly, eyes shifting to the side and Hermione was under the impression that there was more to that story. It sounded true enough, but it only sounded like part of the story and her instincts were telling her she had been more right earlier, they may have forgotten the first time, but there had been another, at least.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blonder cleared her throat and continued, looking back at Hermione, blush fading and a more serious look settling on her face. “You’re good for my sister. I could see if from the first time we all had tea together in Diagon and doubly so now. She’s happier, glowing, loved, for which I’m happy and glad she’s found another love after everything…” She paused and looked down at the vial in Hermione’s hands. “She’s always wanted more children. I don’t know if she’s shared that with you yet considering it’s still early days in your relationship, but when we were younger she wanted at least two, though better three. If that’s something you want, Hermione, well, you should know she does too, even if she never says anything for some gods unknown reason that’s probably too noble for her own good.” She rolled her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you telling me?” Hermione tilted her head at the other woman. It was clear it was coming from a place of care and that she wanted only to secure Andy’s happiness, but still. Why? She knew Andy wanted more kids, had seen it, but why would Narcissa tell her this so early? “Why tell me now instead of when it isn’t ‘early days’ as you put it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because it’s obvious that you two love one another and this won’t be a short term deal. I...when I picked up with Anathema again it was much the same. Made it easy to recognize in the both of you. I can feel your magic around you, and I can feel her within you. It’s heady, isn’t it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione nodded. It was. It very much was. But mostly she felt triumph now, having seen through Narcissa Black of all people to see that her relationship with Anathema was something rather more than just casual dating before the other woman had set to tell her. Seeing through a Slytherin’s mask to the real person underneath was always so satisfying, especially when it showed a real, loving person like Narcissa underneath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> “And both of you deserve to have everything you want without Andy’s terminal foot in mouth disease getting in the way,” Narcissa continued, arching an imperious eyebrow. “I also wouldn’t mind more nieces and nephews to spoil either. I do actually need your help bringing in the packages I bought dear Teddy.” She gestured behind her</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione peeked around the woman and saw a rather huge line of shopping bags from the toy store and from a designer clothing store on Diagon Alley. It seemed she had been rather busy with her nephew over the week.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you leave anything in the store?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa snorted. “Yes, Hermione, of course I did.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked at the woman skeptically. “Right.” It was probably only left in the store if it didn’t meet her ridiculously high standards. She twitched her wand to help levitate the packages upstairs. Some of them had to contain shrunken purchases because they were heavy and hard to keep control over during levitation. She rather wouldn’t be surprised if there was a miniaturized elephant in one of the bags somewhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And let me guess, bricks weren’t something you bought either,” Hermione sniped as they climbed the stairs up towards Teddy’s room while Andy and Teddy babbled together in the kitchen, still talking a mile a minute to each other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why in the world would I buy a two year old bricks?” Narcissa shook her head as if </span>
  <em>
    <span>that </span>
  </em>
  <span>was the real problem here and not the two dozen shopping bags split between them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because the bags feel like you did.” She rattled them and there were some rather </span>
  <em>
    <span>loud</span>
  </em>
  <span> clunks from bags of that size.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa scoffed. “Now you’re just being hyperbolic.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Was she though. Was she?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They settled everything in quickly and Hermione turned to go back downstairs to greet Teddy herself now that Andy had had some alone time with her grandson, but Narcissa stopped her. She looked up to see Narcissa’s face, more serious than before, verging on that deadly sneer she’d seen through most of the war that meant someone was most likely going to be eviscerated at the very least verbally. Ah. Here they were, and she’d started to think that maybe she </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> actually going to get the shovel talk after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We rather haven’t had this talk yet, Miss Granger, but I think it’s time, Golden Girl of the light or not.” Narcissa’s eyes were hard. “I approve of you. I approve of how happy you make my sister, I’ve said as much already. And I know my preferences have no real bearing on whether you see my sister romantically, but it does certainly help everyone get along.” Her eyes narrowed rather to slits. “But if you </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever</span>
  </em>
  <span> do anything to hurt my sister, Miss Granger, I will make sure you regret it, you understand? So despite the fact that it’s only been six months, you keep thinking of that, hmm?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not going to hurt her, at least not purposefully. I love her.” Hermione looked at Narcissa with an open expression. She had nothing to hide about her love for Andy. She’d shout it from the rooftops if she could. She felt Narcissa’s eyes on her intently, looking her over before she nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good.” Instantly Narcissa’s air lightened. “Good, good, now that we’ve had the all important shovel talk, granted months late, but better late than never, hm?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, I suppose.” She shook her head at Narcissa. The other woman loved her sister dearly to threaten her, brains of the Golden Trio and not so far removed from the war that if news of her threatening Hermione in any way got out...at best it would tarnish her already beaten appearance and at worse...well. “But the same goes for you as well, Narcissa,” Hermione said, kindly but like padding on an iron fist. There was still force there to be had in spades.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then we understand each other clearly.” She nodded her approval once and then stepped to the side, allowing Hermione the avenue of escape again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Narcissa?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm,” the other woman hummed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Short of hurting Andy? I’d do the same for you. You deserve to be happy too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa smiled at her, bright and glowing, and ethereally happy. “Then it’s rather good that I am, isn’t it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. It is.” Hermione smiled at the other woman and walked downstairs to find Andy and Teddy playing with some of the match box cars that he had brought to Narcissa’s with him. Andy crashed her car against Teddy’s providing silly little sound effects for his enjoyment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Narcissa smirked down at her sister from the kitchen doorway. “Well since you're rather busy with your duties.” She shoots a glance at the ice cream truck Andy had been playing with. “I’ll leave you to it. Owl me if you need me.” She popped out of existence leaving the three of them alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione came to sit by Andy, snuggling into the older woman’s side with a content sigh. “How much did she buy?” Andy asked, handing her a car, a sleek hot rod looking one. She started moving the car round and round, gently slamming into Teddy's. Such things seemed to delight him most.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Honestly, she could’ve been worse, but it was a mountain of things. I don’t think she was the only one who went shopping with Teddy, so that certainly didn’t help.” She’d smelled a bit of Lady Zabini on some of the items they’d put away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not the only one?” Andy cocked an eyebrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lady Zabini.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy turned to Teddy. “Teddy, did you meet Narcissa’s mate? Anathema?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thema!” Teddy exclaimed and nodded. “She’s nice. Got me candy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course she did, darling, you’re very sweet.” She turned back to Hermione. “She took care of my grandson with Anathema.” She frowned for a moment and Hermione wondered if she was worrying about an unknown alpha with Teddy, but no. Andy snorted. “Well that’s a sly way to bring up that she wants more kids.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think that’s why she invited Anathema along?” It did seem rather Slytherin-esque, she had to admit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh partly, partly just because she wanted to spend time with the woman, and partly other things that I can’t imagine, nor will I spend any amount of brain power trying to.” She shrugged and sighed. “But that’s just yet another person to buy him things and spoil him. Merlin raising this kid with all his uncles and his aunts wrapped around his finger into something that isn’t a spoiled brat is going to be a chore then, isn’t it?”  She huffed out a breath, throwing her little ice cream truck back into another car rather hard. Teddy clapped in glee as cars went flying all over the place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yet you’re already thinking about when to invite Narcissa back so she can spoil Teddy some more, aren’t you?” Hermione asked, but she already knew the answer. After her rut had ended, any added connection that Hermione managed to form with their magic combining over and over stayed intact, just like it had for her heat. She could almost hear Andy’s thoughts now, but she definitely got good impressions of whatever the older witch was thinking no matter if she heard anything or not.</span>
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  <span>“I am. Teddy hasn’t talked about anything else unless it relates to her since he got back. She’s very much going to be the cool aunt.” Andy rolled her eyes at that. “Of course she is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione snorted.”You can return the favor if Narcissa’s gambit to get Anathema to think about kids works out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is worth a thought…” Andy trailed off thinking, grin taking on a rather malicious edge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermione bumped shoulders with Andy. “And in the meantime, one more person added to our inner babysitting circle means more date nights.” She purred, pressing herself closer to Andy even though it had only been a few hours since the rut hormones had cleared up leaving them both wholly rational once again. She should have been feeling mostly nothing on the arousal front for the next week or so, but no, being near Andy still was rather sparking something within. She dropped her voice to whisper to Andy. “And we could have a date night next week where maybe you bend your naughty little girl over your knee and teach her a lesson?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Andy shivered. “If that’s a weekly thing, you’ll never have an unbruised ass again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose that’s a price I’ll just have to pay then, isn’t it.”</span>
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